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IRR > European Race Bulletin > France > Extreme-Right politics

Issues in the French presidential elections

By Liz Fekete

1 June 1995

The first-round: who voted for Le Pen

In the first round of the presidential elections, 4.5 million people voted for the National Front candidate, Jean Marie Le Pen representing 15 per cent of the vote, about one point higher than Le Pen's previous best score in 1988. Phillipe de Villiers Movement for France achieved 4.74 per cent of the vote. Another far-Right challenger, Jacques Cheminade of the Federation for a New Solidarity, had his candidacy challenged in the Constitutional Court when it emerged that he had a criminal conviction for stealing money from a woman with Alzheimer's disease. Cheminade's organisation has links with, and is rumoured to be financially-backed by, Lyndon Larouche of the American extreme-right.

In a swathe of communes, east of a line running from Le Havre to Montpellier, the NF scored between 20-30 per cent of the vote, support coming principally from the textile and mining regions of the north and east. Other factors though seems to account for the substantial support the FN received in the eastern regions of Alsace and Lorraine, traditional strongholds of conservative Catholicism where unemployment is well below the national average of 12.2 per cent. Le Pen scored 25.4 per cent in Alsace in the first round; 26.7 per cent in Mulhouse, 20 per cent in Strasbourg, home to the European parliament and the Council of Europe, and 21.1 per cent in Metz, capital of Lorraine. Commentators attribute Le Pen's success partly to the special identity of an area that was annexed to Germany in 1871, returned to France in 1918, seized by the Nazis in 1940, and retaken by France in 1944.

Le Pen did not only do well in areas with large ethnic minority populations, but in certain rural areas like the commune of Eschentzwiller outside Mulhouse, which has a population of 1127 and only two families from abroad. On radio talk shows inviting callers to give their reasons for supporting Le Pen, most callers cited immigration. According to an exit poll, 5 per cent of people, who described themselves as 'close to the NF' voted for Jospin while only 4 per cent voted for Chirac.

FN Programme

Le Pen promised to create a blueprint for a Sixth Republic to succeed 'decades of political decay', prioritising the expulsion of 3 million immigrants, at a rate of 1200 per day over Le Pen's seven year presidency. Immigrants, promised Le Pen, would be excluded from welfare benefits, and priority for government housing would be given to the French. Le Pen also advocated the redeployment of the nuclear and conventional defence system to meet an eventual threat from North Africa and Asia, During the second-round of the elections, Le Pen suggested that both candidates were bowing to Jewish concerns.

Villiers fails to substantially cut NF's base

New Right candidate Phillipe de Villiers, a duke from the Vendée in western France, attempted to undermine Le Pen's base by speaking out against the cutting of immigration controls on Europe's internal frontiers. De Villiers argues that France will lose control of its southern borders to Spain and Italy, with the risk of Arabs pouring in, and of its northern borders with Holland, 'a country which allows the free sale of drugs.' During a visit to Bousquets de Montfermeil in Seine-Saint-Denis, an area with a large immigrant population, De Villiers took an opportunity to elucidate further on his immigration views. Suggesting that 'The only solution is a resolute policy to protect legal immigrants from illegals' by, for instance, the removal of welfare benefits for illegals, he went on to outline the three principles upon which immigration policy should be based, namely 'the reestablishement of our frontiers', revision of the right to remain (via the introduction of a temporary and non-renewable permit and tighter controls on family reunification) and a 'formal and solemn oath in front of the French flag in order to become French - which is an honour and not a right'.

De Villiers, out to woo middle-class voters who feel abandoned but are turned off by Le Pen's extremism, also highighlights issues of federalism and the 'tyranny of the new global economy'. His campaign combined Eurosceptism, family values and patriotism.

Initial attitude of other candidates to NF's programme

Before the first-round of the presidential election, Gaullist candidate Edouard Balladur invited Le Pen to his office on a least five occasions and there were rumours that Balladur had promised the NF influential government posts in the event of his victory. Chirac, on the other hand, refused to collaborate with Le Pen drawing opprobrium from the FN leader.

The Socialist candidate, Lionel Jospin, did not propose any sweeping changes to Pasqua's notorious immigration laws but indicated that he would restore the right to citizenship to all children born in France.

Robert Hue, the Communist candidate for the presidency, called for solidarity with the people of Algeria, French visas for the persecuted of North Africa, and the relaxation of nationality laws. Indeed, the Communist Party, is increasingly describing itself as the 'anti-Le-Pen party'.

Chirac and Jospin's attempts to gain FN vote

Le Pen's good result in the first round put him in an excellent position to influence the result overall. Advising his supporters to cast a blank ballot in the second-round, Le Pen described Chirac as a 'crypto-Communist', the candidate of decadence and worse than his socialist opponent. 'Chirac is Jospin, only worse. Both represent the foreigners' party'. Le Pen's antipathy for Chirac dates back to the period when Chirac, as prime minister, abolished proportional representation.

As the FN vote proved crucial to both presidential hopefuls, each found themselves in a position of having to court FN votes. Although, officially, both candidates fiercely rebuffed the FN's advances, in their speeches and rallies they both played up to FN themes. For instance:

• Chirac: Speaking at a rally in the Loire Valley town of Orléans, Chirac said that the fight against illegal immigration was a major responsibility for the state and went on to link immigration with crime and the breakdown in law and order. 'If we continue down this slippery slope' he said 'we will continue to see law and order confiscated by ethnic or rligious groups who will push people further into separation and the ghetto.' At a speech in Montigny-Les-Bretonneux (Yvelines) on 14 April Chirac argued that illegal immigration 'feeds intolerance and extremism' and that 'France, home of the Rights of Man, the fatherland of freedom, must adopt a straightforward but resolute attitude' including the use of 'our judicial arsenal and repressive means'. Financial assistance would be given to those who wanted to be voluntarily repatriated. However, after the murder of Brahim Bouraam (see below) Chirac altered his stance. 'I reject the theories of those who attribute all our ills to foreigners and who see the only solution as their expulsion... We must remain faithful to a policy of generous integration', he told a rally in the eastern city of Metz.In order to back Chirac's attempt to woo the FN vote, interior minister Charles Pasqua went on television promising 'a dose' of proportional representation. Le Pen's antipathy for Chirac dates back to the presidential candidate's abolition of proportional representation when he was prime minister.

• Jospin: At a rally in the southern town of Valence, Jospin described Le Pen voters as 'men and women who should be with us' and said citizens should have better protection against crime. Jospin's introduction of the subject of proportional representation could also have been interpreted as an attempt to woo FN voters, although he stressed that it was a mechanism for ensuring that women and ecologists were properly represented. A Socialist former culture minister Jack Lang, proved a liability to Jospin's camp when he suggested that Jospin might court the FN vote.

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