Monday, May 6, 2002
The right, hard right and everyone else - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER -- A political earthquake shook France two weeks ago. Lionel Jospin, the socialist candidate for president came in third in the country’s presidential elections, whilst Jean Marie Le Pen of the hard right, National Front, came in second. Le Pen, by virtue of the nation’s electoral system, would return two weeks later in a run-off with the first place finisher current President Jacques Chirac; the winner to take up residence in the Elysée Palace as President for the next five years. Jospin, the reigning Prime Minister, faced President Jacques Chirac before. Seven years earlier he narrowly lost to the conservative, Gaulist Chirac. 2002 would signal a rematch, yet the result of two weeks ago was most surprising. Jospin and Le Pen received around 17-18% of the vote; and with Le Pen getting more votes than Jospin, the socialist candidate got cut off and it was Le Pen alone to face Chirac. Non-right voters were shut out and the presidential race became a choice between the right and the hard right. So afraid were the communists, socialists and everyone else of the racist National Front, they lumped it and supported Chirac.
The success of Le Pen provided the French and the rest of Europe some food for thought. Certainly socialists like those that cried so much at Jospin headquarters two weeks ago, thought long and hard about taking for granted a political system that they thought was merely a see-saw between the left and the right. Perhaps there was some complacency within the Jospin camp that the presidential race was to merely pit their socialist with the Gaulist Chirac. In France, the progressives were caught off guard and it was a desire from rank and file French that wanted crime controlled and immigrants illegitimate, that triumphed. Prior to this year’s election, the National Front and John Marie Le Pen were merely on the fringe of popular politics in France. Suddenly, the desire for an end to immigrants "invading" France, superseded any desire to subscribe to a socialist way of thinking. Complacency will not be an option for socialists in France and Europe from now on. Certainly, the socialists sans Jospin hope to reclaim a majority of National Assembly seats and retain the prime ministership in parliamentary elections in June.
Is it surprising that 18% of France support a xenophobic, racist, and fringe outfit? Again, complacency is to blame. Do the protests on May Day, and the fear mongering of the left have any merit? Will Le Pen and the National Front take over, now that it’s showed it can achieve a decent plurality in an election? Well, there is no doubt, the presidential debacle notwithstanding, the socialists will do well in parliamentary elections come June. Chirac’s Gaullist’s will split the vote with Le Pen’s National Front, thus the socialists will come up the middle. They’ll claim a majority of the National Assembly and will tap one of their own as Prime Minister. Plus, Le Pen is of a certain age (72). The popularity of the National Front is largely rooted in his personal popularity. Once he’s gone, I doubt the National Front will gain equal success. (Though he remains feisty as ever. It was a funny clip, that which they played during the campaign, of him trying to hit a female opponent during the last campaign in 1997.)
This will then pose another question. Currently, Jospin, a socialist as Prime Minister controls the National Assembly; this whilst Gaulist Chirac is President. This is a co-habitation of the government in France, and it will be the fourth in the history of France’s Fifth Republic if it’s repeated after June’s elections. Now comes talk that De Gaulle’s vision of having a powerful president, something that was lacking in the Fourth Republic, hasn’t been fulfilled and a sixth republic will need to be created. Perhaps emulating Britain’s Westminster parliamentary system, or America’s presidential system will be in the cards; and the success of Le Pen is to be blamed for that. Moreover Le Pen is responsible for the bureaucratic headache of the socialists often tying the hands of the Gaullist’s, and hijacking the President’s agenda. The situation where commonly held conceptions of politics has been broken. Jean Marie Le Pen, irrespective of political ideals, proved that politics remains a numbers game. The socialist embarrassment has also proved that left and right distinctions are often blurred, and are perhaps meaningless today. It’s funny to think that the socialists and communists actually came out in numbers to vote for Jacques Chirac.
What does worry me, is not the fact there are significant numbers in France that subscribe to prejudiced thinking -- some 18%. What worries me is the fact the beliefs of some can be vilified so. The National Front and Jean Marie Le Pen have gotten short shrift from the media around the world. They have been portrayed as demagogues and foamers at the mouth, and perhaps they are. The hard left get the same treatment (but I’m sure aren’t complaining at Le Pen’s vilifying now). What is worrisome is that far out beliefs -- whether of the fringe right or left -- are ignored for the safe, pasty, conformist middle pap that is not controversial at all. Remember the game is politics.
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