The American Spectator : The Power of Le Pen

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The Power of Le Pen

By Joseph A. Harriss from the June 2011 issue

Two cheers for Marine Le Pen, the new president of France's National Front party.

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Trained as a lawyer, she comfortably delivers articulate speeches laying out the Front's positions on a stronger state, law and order, nationalistic protectionism, and social welfare, spiced with a dash of flag-waving, crowd-rousing patriotism. At the party convention in Tours last January she gave a well-crafted acceptance speech with surprising echoes of Lincoln (state power should be "of the people, by the people, for the people"), and eclectic references ranging from Jean Jaurès, a major historical figure of the French left, to the Catholic mystic writer Charles Péguy. In her stem-winding attack on "identity-killing globalization," she called it "an economic horror, a social tsunami, a moral Chernobyl. The globalized utopia is finished."

In speech after speech across France, Marine hammers home the Front's other pet themes: limiting immigration (flouting European Union rules to reestablish border customs and passport controls), pushing back against the increasingly assertive Muslim community (no burqas on women or public funds for new mosques), exiting the EU ("It's a dead star which seems to be there but no longer really exists"), dropping the euro currency ("It's not viable and already collapsing on itself").

The message, though provocative and often unworkable, is getting through. Some three-quarters of the French now consider her "courageous," nearly half agree with her on security and crime, a third on slowing immigration, while 42 percent think she is "close to people's concerns." In the space of four months earlier this year she doubled the Front's numbers, from 12 to 24 percent. Repeated surveys find her beating Sarkozy in the first round of the 2012 presidential election. Others even show her outpolling any likely candidate in the second-round runoff to win the presidency.

OBVIOUSLY it's still very early days in the 2012 campaign. But the polls were borne out in real time in last March's local elections, the last big test before next year's presidential. The resurgent socialists got 36 percent to the faltering UMP's 19 percent. But the shocker was the Front's 40 percent in the cantons where it put up candidates. In just a few months, it has gone from marginal to mainstream.

In that it is surfing on the same wave of discontent that is lifting populists across Europe. From Scandinavia to Italy, right-wing parties are shaking up the political scene, whether it be the True Finns in Finland, the Danish People's Party, Austria's FPÖ, the Swiss People's Party or Italy's Northern League. As the conservative French commentator Guy Sorman observed recently, "Given a slow economy, a failed welfare state, and uncontrolled immigration-challenges for which no mainstream parties on the right or left have any coherent proposals-the appeal of the far right's soft populism will continue to haunt France and Europe."

Certainly it is haunting Nicolas Sarkozy. The most unpopular president in the 53-year history of the Fifth Republic is running scared. With good reason, for fully three-quarters of French voters of all political persuasions are now convinced he will lose the Elysée Palace next year and become a one-term president.

On issues like immigration and Islamification of French society, Marine has him stymied so that whatever he does is wrong. If he fails to take a strong line, the Front wins. If he tries to steal its thunder with copycat proposals, he only makes the Front's program more appealing: why vote for an imitation when you can have the real thing? Fully aware of that, some members of his own UMP party are calling for cooperation with the Front, while many of their constituents are already moving toward the NF.

Short of an earthshaking upset, Marine won't win the presidency. Yet it's just possible that she will succeed in demolishing the decrepit Gaullist party that has dominated French politics for half a century. But a word of caution: if her NF comes to dominate or heavily influence French policies, it could be seriously destabilizing.

Policies like dropping the euro and returning to the franc, fighting a pitched battle with the EU, and preferring a dirigiste economy to free-market capitalism would not be without big costs to France and the West. So too with Marine's position on Franco-American relations. Implementing a prickly nationalism à la Charles de Gaulle, she would withdraw France from NATO, develop a closer relationship with Russia -- making Germany nervous -- and generally be a difficult partner in any areas, economic, military, or diplomatic, where France could possibly appear "servile" to the U.S.

So two cheers for Marine Le Pen for taking on France's political establishment and showing up its elitist hypocrisy and incoherence. But not three. Because if this lady ever becomes president, all bets are off.

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About the Author

Joseph A. Harriss is The American Spectator's Paris correspondent. His latest book is About France.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (31) | Leave a comment

Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 6.28.11 @ 6:49AM

Quick! The elitists of France need to get Chris Wallace over there for an interview so he can label her a flake!

Alan Brooks| 6.28.11 @ 11:15PM

"they must make the effort to assimilate and accept France's Christian heritage"

No, they should accept democracy, not Christianity; only an absolute fool would think Christianity is transplantable into the Islamic mind.

TrueBlue| 6.29.11 @ 12:35PM

I don't think he meant they needed to convert, just that they should stop trying to force the rest of France to convert to Islam's frame of mind or expecting special treatment.

Foxfier| 6.29.11 @ 1:07PM

If they can't accept the Christian heritage-- with things like universal personhood and similar assumptions that underlay France's legal structure-- then they can't accept democracy in the form France practices it.

If the "Islamic mind" is able to assimilate to a nation that has a Christian heritage, and accept that there will be Christians around them, will be determined only through time and attempts, after they stop bending over backwards to accommodate the Islamic heritage of the newcomers.
(Especially since "Islamic mind" is a phrase that's very easy to redefine-- if it requires the "all who don't practice my specific form of Islam are sub-humans who live only to be useful to me and mine," then it's not compatible; if "Islamic mind" means "worldview of majority of Muslims in X area" then it's much more flexible.)

Westie| 6.28.11 @ 7:24AM

Wonders of wonder the Ladies of the West have more courage and intelligence than the distasteful Metro-sexual leaders such as the pricks Obama, Sarkosy and Cameron. May their fall from grace be complete!

P.Smith| 6.28.11 @ 7:35AM

What France needs is revolution; maybe it could be called “The French Revolution”. In this so called “revolution” they could go around chopping the heads off the liberal elite. I doubt anything like this could ever happen over there, but one can always hope.

Anita| 6.28.11 @ 9:48AM

Gee P. Smith, wonder why they never thought of it. Slow thinkers I guess.

Too much sex.

Tom| 6.28.11 @ 8:03AM

Could she become the French version of Margaret Thatcher?

A Mama Grizzly en francais?

As with Thatcher-Reagan, trans-Atlantic kindred spirits, summiting with President Bachmann as they work together to deconstruct the new Evil-Empire of NGO's and "global governance"?

A wonderful daydream with which to start the day! :-)

lydia| 6.28.11 @ 9:12AM

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In this so called “revolution” they could go around chopping the heads off the liberal elite. I doubt anything like this could ever happen over there, but one can always hope.

Michael Tomlinson| 6.28.11 @ 9:37AM

Le Pen may have a correct position on Muslims and their very real threat to France and the West, but she is no Margaret Thatcher and comparing her to the Iron Lady is an insult.

The National Front's emphasis on a top down economy is clearly more in line with Barack Obama than Margaret Thatcher or Ronald Reagan.

Still if she pushes France to purge itself of Islam that would be a good thing. Hopefully, Geert Wilder's victory in a Dutch court and Fance's growing disgust with Muslims is a sign Europe is finally waking up to the threat of Islam to its freedoms and survival.

Prayerfully, it isn't too late.

e track from saq| 6.28.11 @ 9:42AM

The forces of darkness which seek to destroy the west and enslave us simple souls have found a real match in Le Pen.
Watch for the dark hand as it emerges to hurt her in some bizarre fashion.
The so called "global elites"have sold their souls for power and will do the bidding of their ever-so-strange master.
We can choose the light we see the world in but we must accept the facts.

crookedwren| 6.28.11 @ 9:43AM

Let's pay tribute to the most significant point here: "the nation-state is the only legitimate basis of government."

These "open borders" are no accident, as we all know. Our "open border" is no accident.

This phrase must become part of our battle cry.

Occam's Tool| 6.28.11 @ 11:54AM

France has a reputation for being, shall we say, less than stalwart as an ally. In addition, France is aging and shrinking. They, too, are the dead.

RCV| 6.28.11 @ 2:29PM

France also, as well as the Le Pen family, has a reputation for being, shall we say, pretty antisemitic.

Purple Lips| 6.28.11 @ 3:41PM

France has always had a long and glorious history of antisemitism.

ncatty| 6.28.11 @ 6:25PM

Yes Crooked, the concept of the nation-state is in play with many elites.

Smirking Weasel| 6.28.11 @ 1:17PM

No, a billion cheers.
And equating this woman with republicrat frauds like Bachmann or, especially, Quitter Granny of a
Bastard, is an egregious insul

Seek| 6.28.11 @ 1:39PM

Good for Ms. Le Pen. She is yet another example of a growing, potent and articulate trans-European patriotism, at once nationalistic and cognizant of the need for EU cooperation to keep out the Third World, especially the Muslims. The British National Party (UK), Vlaams Belang (Flanders) and the Freedom Party (Austria) are all indicative of a surge toward ethno-religious realism.

ZAK KLEMMER| 6.28.11 @ 3:17PM

I think that Ms. Le Pen deserves 3 cheers. However I am thankful for my British heritage and that I am an American.

Mel Torme| 6.28.11 @ 6:22PM

"When the European Common Market, created in the late 1950s as a free-trade zone, started transferring national sovereignty to a Brussels-based organization manned by unelected bureaucrats (think letting the U.S. be run by the United Nations)"

NO, ... think letting the state of Montana* be run by the US Federal Government!

The author has one hell of a statist mindset without even knowing it. Brussels, Washington, FS**, what's the damn difference?

*insert your state here.
**short for Washington, Federal Shithole.

Mark MacDonald| 6.28.11 @ 10:36PM

As much as it might rankle Americans and other Europeans, especially the Germans, turning away from NATO and establishing a closer relationship with Russia may make some sense for the French. First, as the interests of its partners become more and more divergent, NATO will become less and less relevant. Second, the French, like the Russians, are a very nationalistic people and there is a strong desire among the people of both countries to regain some of their former glory and influence. Finally, it should be apparent that a resurgent Germany is becoming the dominant player in the Eurozone and neither the French nor the Russians can look to the United States nor Britain to stand up to the German economic juggernaut. For at least the next decade the Germans will be making the decisions that determine the economic futures of countries like Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain. For the victors of the Greatest War this is a bitter pill to swallow.

Pelligrino| 6.28.11 @ 11:56PM

Mr. MacDonald, please tell me who France must or can blame for its economic inequality with Germany? And Russia....do they have any excuses? (oh, aside from 70 years of demonic totalitariansim waged on half a continent -- with Russia's own people as the greatest of losers)

Germany is succeeding not so much because of terrific superiority (no way), but because other Eurozone nations with no excuse, like France, are so inept.

Note: Germany has been THE dominant European nation since circa 1985. This is nothing new.

If the French wanted to reverse this trend or attain parity, they've had a quarter century to get their act together....still waiting....

France was not ravaged in any way like Germany and yet it could not make itself the economic juggernaut of the post WWII Europe? With GB in decline since the 1970's, France could be the shining example of the very best Europe has to offer. But what we have is collective French denial of where to place the blame.

End: France has no credible excuses. None.

Ms. Le Pen might be sharing about 60% good ideas in these early days of her efforts. But getting cozy with Russia on anything is delusional, suicidal and immoral.

Naturalborn Texican| 6.28.11 @ 10:59PM

Just heard that multiculturalism is becoming out of style with many European nations such as the Netherlands, Specifically where Muslim immigrants who want to change the laws of the country they immigrate to by implementing sharia law.

It sounds like France is getting on the bandwagon.

Sounds good to me!!!

Madam Le Pen sounds pretty savvy so far.
Sometimes it takes a woman to get the job done. I find that women are more realistic and practical than most men.

Viva la France!!!

RCV| 6.29.11 @ 1:52AM

Ms. Le pen has just chosen a more politically correct group to spew venom on; when she was spitting on Jews we all recognized her as a bigot. Now she's a farsighted nationalist.

Johnimo| 6.29.11 @ 2:22AM

It's no longer conditional, Mr. Harriss, the dire circumstances of our civilization dictates that "all bets are off!" That's the reason Le Pen appeals to so many.

Don Carlson| 6.29.11 @ 7:02AM

I've heard it said that it is better to have France as an enemy than a friend, and there are deep differences between French leftists and American leftists, as well as between French conservatives and American conservatives. The French left and right both begin with the tenet that a secular, highly centralized, and powerful government is 'de rigueur', while in America, though this assumption lives in the hearts of Democrats, it is has had to be foisted on the rest of us, therefore it is not a position the Democrats care to air in debate. To American conservatives paternal government is inimical and they will resist the continued implementation of it despite its supposed usefulness in dealing with false concerns like global warming, social justice (income redistribution), ‘medical reform’, fairness to immigrants, and affirmative action.

Differently, political French of all stripes take such socialist-self-aggrandizing for granted and despise Americans generally. They more naturally cotton to the Russians, perhaps from a French sense of imperial and intellectual superiority. In the end America’s position vis-a-vis the French will not change: we will not be able to count on them in a fight, and we can expect their continued dismissal of American and Israeli interests in the world. There is nothing we can do to change this, for were we to slavishly ape the French, they would despise us even more. Provided we can stop the Democrats and Rinos from dragging us to pseudo-European semi-socialist hell, we can welcome France’s low opinion of America as a sign of our essential health.

POST American| 6.30.11 @ 9:06AM

"We are using MASSIVE third world
immigration to destroy British culture
once and for all ---FOREVER."
-TONY BLAIR
Fmr PM/Globalist/Cultural EUGENIST

Likewise with the 'on board' Czar-cozy,
to say nothing of the Bush Sr, Clinton,
Bush Jr, Obama ---CFR/RIIA front op.

weddingdress| 7.1.11 @ 12:37AM

Mistral| 7.3.11 @ 12:37AM

Deo Gratias for the National Front in France. France is slowly going down the drain of increasing crime, delinquency, islamification on the streets, graffiti and ubiquitous beggary. There is an air of unremitting decline as hedonism, omnipresent drunkeness, sodomy and foul public youth misbehaviour take over daily norms and values.

Mistral| 7.3.11 @ 12:42AM

One tramway driver in Montpellier, France stated to me recenly when young north african louts were smoking in the tram (and had told me to "_u_ _off") that he could do nothing about it or any other breaking of the laws on the btrams. He was afraid the courts would be against him if there was an ugly outcome. He also said the public were not supportive when they took action so why should he bother. When I asked him what the eventual solution would be he said with a rye smile on his face, "Another War"