The French election: An electoral reprieve?
The barbarians have been beaten back, at least temporarily. Like many I breathed a deep sign of relief when the results of the recent French presidential election came in indicating a decisive victory for centrist Emmanuel Macron over the far-right, antiimmigrant candidate, Marine Le Pen, by a wide 66 to 34 per cent margin. The momentum of the “march of malice” seems to have been halted.
In reality, contrary to public opinion, this has been a bad year for the so-called “Alt-right,” or far right, racist, anti-immigrant, “populist” parties; the term “Altright “is in fact a code word or euphemism for neo-Nazi groups. For or those who don’t have a score card various right-wing parties have been defeated recently at the polls in Austria, Holland, and now France (and Canada), while Donald Trump’s ascendancy to U.S. president shocked the world ; however, Conservative PM Theresa May in Britain is cruising towards a landslide as a result of the Labour Party’s incompetence. Important elections will be held in Germany this September, and probably later this year in Israel. Does the defeat of key right wing parties in Europe signal an electoral reprieve for liberal democracy? One can always hope, but it is unlikely. Why? Simply, because the rise of the racist, know nothing, right-wing is based, in reality, on the legitimate grievances of workers, including unemployment, low pay, dead end jobs, and widening income disparities. Compounding this is the ascendancy of women and immigrants in the labour market which triggers the insecurities and challenges the traditional prerogatives of the uneducated, white, male, working class. As Eric Hoffer in his True Believer (1951) argues, workers who support far rightwing political parties could just as easily support far-left political alternatives. Indeed, this political polarization is a classic characteristic of the collapse of liberal democracy and the rise of fascism. Polarization on the right and left reflects dissatisfaction with the liberal center. The German Weimar Republic in the 1930s and the rise of Nazism is the classic case.
Lastly, the rise of the far-right, or neo-fascism by any other name, is based on irrationality and fear. Fear of social change and fear of those who may be different. Good examples are the latent, putrescent racism and misogyny unleashed by Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen. As political scientist Erich Fromm and philosopher Ortega y Gasset have suggested we live in an era of Mass Man where we seek identity, certainty, and security. Are we now prepared to trade our civil liberties for consumerism and social stability? Reactionary forces have been unleashed. How do we put the genie back in the bottle?
Richard Deaton,
Stanley Bridge