The French Rally to the Republic

 

Before the second round of France’s regional elections on Sunday, most predictions suggested that five, perhaps six, of the country’s regional governments would fall into the hands of the National Front (FN). But the French people pulled themselves together and turned out to vote in much greater numbers than anyone expected. The result is that a xenophobic, racist party, one hostile to everything essential to the spirit and greatness of France, was defeated in all of the contests that it was supposed to win.

 

Some will express surprise at this strange country, which is never so great as when it is on the edge of a cliff. They will worry – and they are right to worry – that a situation of extreme peril, a veritable threat to the nation, was required before the French recovered their senses and took the path of reason. And they will regret that the French are not the prosaic sort of people who know how to be themselves at normal cruising speed, without having to hear a cannonball whistle past. But that is how it is.

 

And I, like many others, will not try to hide my satisfaction at seeing the smug scoundrels of the FN break down and resume speaking in their historic register, with their authentic voice, which is one of hatred and mob rage. This, truly, was a victory for the republic – a triumph of popular resistance.

 

The French turned out, en masse, to say that they did not want to see the Le Pen gang take possession of their regions. That is the most important lesson from Sunday’s vote, and it is a reassuring one. But what caused the nation to right itself?

 

Obviously, nothing happened between the elections’ first and second rounds that addressed the “malaise” of the French people. Nor was any particular promise made in response to the “hard questions” raised by FN voters just a week earlier.

 

No. What we saw, instead, was a moral surge among the French – an act of self-defense by the body politic.

 

Between the two rounds, the following simple idea sank in among the electorate: The National Front can revamp its façade all it wants, but it has never been, is not, and can never be a normal party. For how long have France’s moral and political authorities been telling us that “stigmatization” of the National Front doesn’t work, that it strengthens the party instead of weakening it? Well, that was wrong 20 years ago, and it is still wrong.

 

It cannot be repeated often enough that when the moral left and right have been strong, when groups like SOS Racisme set boundaries that are bright and clear, the FN has been contained electorally. But when those boundary lines are blurred, when the dikes crumble and the antiracist watchdogs allow themselves to be intimidated or lower their guard, the FN tries to make itself at home.

 

The same is true today. The happy surprise of the regional vote owes absolutely nothing to accommodations with the FN by major parties that supposedly “heard the message” of “angry” voters (rhetoric that they relentlessly drummed into us). On the contrary, a sufficient number of voters came to understand that in that very anger – in its spokespeople and in the words used to express it – lurked a threat to the republic, to democracy, and to the nation’s fundamental values. That is the second lesson.

 

What awaits us tomorrow? How can we be sure that the FN wave, having receded, will not regain strength and break with even greater destructive force in the upcoming presidential election?... Read more.

 

Source : https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/national-front-loses-french...