Le Pen? Mais non!
April 26, 2002 ~ 5:01 p.m.
Who is responsible for National Front leader Jean Marie Le Pen�s victory in the second round of preliminaries in the French Presidential election? Was it voter apathy, a sudden swing to the Far Right among the electorate, a case of the Left bringing their defeat upon themselves, or something far more clever?
Earlier this month, Le Pen squeaked ahead of Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin by one percent, eliminating Jospin from the presidential race. The French Left was devastated. Le Pen now moves into competition with incumbent Presdient Jacques Chirac.
Voters got fed up with rising levels of violent crime, even in normally tranquil areas of France, never mind the bigger cities. It is a safe guess to wager that a large percentage of votes in favor of Le Pen originated from certain disgruntled areas of Paris, Lille and Marseille. However, the entire French nation is on edge over crime, which may explain the attraction to Le Pen.
Le Pen has linked crime to high levels of immigration. He has also attacked France�s participation in the Euro and the EEC, favoring a nationalistic and isolationist policy for France. Le Pen trumps up his image as a working-class free man who only wants to put France first, but the man is insane. He is a former paratrooper who lost sight in one eye during a street fight. He has dismissed the Holocaust as a niggling little detail of history. He has promised to severely curtail immigration levels. Both the Jewish and Muslim communities throughout France are joining forces to try to ensure Le Pen�s defeat in the upcoming election�that alone speaks volumes.
Voter apathy in France runs high, so whatever votes were cast in the primaries represented not the largest measure of desire among the electorate for a Far Right government. (This should teach a lesson to the protestors, who are enraged by Le Pen�s primary victory, that every vote counts.) Secondly, after failing to attack the roots and causes of crime because it is deemed too insensitive to minority communities to police them and subsequently crack down on crime, the Left has effectively dug its own grave, pretty much ensuring its defeat. Fed up beyond compare, an upset electorate seemed to suggest that not even voting for Chirac, a moderate conservative, seemed to be the answer. No, Le Pen would shake things up!
But I believe this is not what led to Le Pen�s second place victory in the primaries. If you knew that the electorate was with you on the issue of crime and safety, then a tactical way of approaching the voting booth might arise. Knowing that Chirac and Jospin were neck-and-neck, any means of intervention from a third party would likely benefit Chirac. Therefore, 17 percent of the voting populace might have voted for Le Pen as a way of knocking out the liberal competition and ensuring a victory for Chirac.
It is clear that Le Pen must be defeated. French society, culture and attitudes have always been insular, but Le Pen�s policies, which embrace racism, anti-Semitism and a dangerous isolationism, would not suit the nation well. French voters do not take Le Pen seriously in light of his much more level-headed Gaullist conservative competition.
I don�t consider Le Pen�s shocking victory tragic. Rather, it is a ray of hope for France. Chirac will win the Presidency and, with his Socialist antagonist defeated, will lead the nation forward more effectively.
� M.E.M.
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Copyright � 2001-2007 by M.E. Manning. All material is written by me, unless explicitly stated otherwise by use of footnotes or bylines. Do not copy or redistribute without my permission.
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