MARINE LE PEN IS ANTHING BUT “A MOTHER OF THE FRENCH”

 

           …”Vote Marine” prevented the use of calling for Le Pen’s last name

 

Macron won the election, but Le Pen is no longer a threat to the French

 

An American columnist has written: “French President Emmanuel Macron should take no pride in once again defeating far-right candidate Marine Le Pen. Since her first run for the presidency in 2012, she has gained a substantial degree of influence, enough that the far right is now an unavoidable force in French politics. Instead of celebrating his win, Macron and his supporters should take a close look at how Le Pen and her hateful positions have become part of the French political mainstream.”

This appears to be a correct statement as the final election results were that Macron won with 56% versus 41% of the vote.  Le Pen did much better that she did in the previous election, and she did better than anyone ever expected.

Make no mistake, despite her loss, Le Pen managed to both raise her profile and cultivate an image that whitewashed her extremely dangerous agenda. Also remember, she is also a fan of Russia’s president Putin.

Over the years, her campaign posters have shifted from mentioning her last name, that was associated with her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen.  He was the former head of her party and a notorious racist.  The campaign instead focused on her first name, all the while depicting her with a wide and innocent smile.

During this campaign, she used her Instagram account to showcase her love for cats and she made public appearances singing outdated popular songs, thus presenting herself as a regular person who does not share the cultural tastes of the elite.  Yet she comes from what would be called the “wealthy elite.”   She even described herself as a single women, like “a number of French people,” but failed to acknowledge that she was born and raised in the French upper class.  Former Miss France Delphine Wespiser even praised Le Pen as “a mother of the French,” which appears to be way out of line.

At the same time, several media outlets held debates on whether or not Le Pen was actually from the far right. That shocking question captures just how many people in France no longer perceive her, as the threat she brings.  She has definitely won the “non-demonization” game.

Yet there is no doubt about what she stands for.  As leader of National Rally, it is a party founded by former Nazi collaborators and fascists.  She is supported by the most radical and violent fringes of the far right, including fascists and anti-Semites. Her positions and previous statements clearly show she comes from the most extreme side of the political landscape.

As a member of Parliament, she introduced a bill last year on “Citizenship, Identity and Immigration proposing a referendum to prioritize French nationals over foreigners, (no matter how long they might have been in France)”  The bill was introduced in areas from housing to jobs, to social services. The proposal would eliminate birthright citizenship (a core principle of French citizenship), facilitate deportation and end family reunification.  This violates international human rights laws protecting the right to family life.  Furthermore, under the bill, the French people with dual citizenship would be prevented from accessing public service jobs.

Such policies are a threat to the principle of equality outlined in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, passed during the French Revolution in 1789 and now part of the preamble of the French constitution.  Le Pen also planned to partially withdraw France from the European Convention on Human Rights.

Nor is Le Pen an ally to feminism. The word “woman” is not mentioned in any of her 22 key measures of her presidential manifesto, with the exception of a general line about all men and women. Her platform includes no policies to stop gender-based violence or to promote equal rights in the workplace. She has previously spoken disparagingly of “comfort” abortions, implying that reproductive justice was a luxury, and this year she said the Muslim “veil” marked “an ideology … as dangerous as Nazism.”

Her party’s platform, moreover, pushes for a police state, in which police officers would be granted the “presumption of self-defense” if they committed a violent act. They could also file complaints against any citizen they accuse of attacking them, without having to reveal their own identity, making defending the accused virtually impossible.

Unfortunately, Macron was slow in labeling the National Rally’s platform as “racist,” and he did so only after polls predicted her rising threat.  Such condemnation would have been useful to hear from him last year when his interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, criticized Le Pen for being ‘too soft’ on Islam.

In fact, Macron’s government contributed to the mainstreaming of Le Pen by spending more energy fighting “wokeism” and “Islamo-leftism”, than addressing the rise of the far right. Macron’s hard stance on immigration, Islam and security policies helped Le Pen’s xenophobic and racist rhetoric appear acceptable. Human rights organizations have raised concerns about laws enacted over the past five years that threatened freedoms.  There was the harsh repression of social movements that left thousands of protesters injured; and the unprecedented harassment of Muslim people that culminated in the closure of many Muslim institutions.

The Islamophobic rhetoric used by several government members, as well as the president himself, who said the Muslim veil made people “insecure” because “it is not in keeping with the civility that there is in our country”  

Winning the election, after fueling public opinion with hateful discourse is not a victory.

The far right with Le Pen, has succeeded in normalizing its ideology. 

That should worry us all.

Copyright G. Ater 2022