France’s ‘Republican Front’ has yet to be seen

PARIS: The last time the National Front was on the verge of power, in 2002, nearly 2 million people took to the streets of France to reject the party of far-right extremism.

In the end, those protests took their toll: Jean-Marie Le Pen, the convicted Holocaust denier and co-founder of the National Front, was crushed in the election’s final round, receiving 17.8% of the vote that year. In a symbol of political sacrifice, some leftists even wore clothes pegs over their noses as they voted for Jacques Chirac, France’s conservative incumbent.

“Republican Front” is the French term for the bipartisan opposition that has prevented an extremist from winning the presidency. It is what defeated Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2002, but its impact on his daughter’s bid in 2017 has yet to be seen.

This year the National Front is once again on the cusp of power with a far greater chance of winning the presidency than in 2002.

According to polls, Marine Le Pen will win at least 40% of the vote in the second and final round – more than double her father’s total 15 years ago. But there have been no notable mass protests this year on anything close to the same scale.

“There was no element of surprise this time,” said Dominique Moïsi, French political scientist and author of a book about the role of emotions in political discourse. “In 2002, people were genuinely shocked by the fact that someone like Jean-Marie Le Pen could actually reach power. This time, everybody expected it.”

When Marine Le Pen emerged in second place from the election’s first round with 21% of the vote, politicians from both the left and the right immediately backed her opponent, former investment banker Emmanuel Macron. But in a remarkable break with tradition, others did not.

On Monday in Paris, thousands gathered in the annual International Worker’s Day union demonstrations. The largest expressly condemned Le Pen but stopped short of endorsing Macron for Sunday’s final, crucial round of the vote.