The ruthlessly effective rebranding of Europe’s new far right

[Grey Lemercier]

Across the continent, rightwing populist parties have seized control of the political conversation. How have they done it? By stealing the language, causes and voters of the traditional left...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/01/the-ruthlessly-effective-rebranding-of-europes-new-far-right


n April 2002, Jean-Marie Le Pen stunned all of Europe by defeating the socialist candidate, Lionel Jospin, in the first round of the French presidential election, and advancing to the final round between the top two candidates. Terrified by the prospect of a far-right victory, the French left – including communists, Greens and the Socialist party – threw their support behind the incumbent president, Jacques Chirac, a pillar of the centre-right establishment who had served as mayor of Paris for 18 years before becoming president in 1995. This electoral strategy effectively isolated Le Pen’s Front National (FN), depicting it as a cancerous force in the French body politic.

Two weeks later, on 5 May, Chirac won the election with an astronomical 82% of the vote, trouncing Le Pen by the biggest margin in a French presidential election since 1848. Raucous celebrations spilled into the streets of Paris. “We have gone through a time of serious anxiety for the country – but tonight France has reaffirmed its attachment to the values of the republic,” Chirac declared in his victory speech. Then, speaking to the joyous crowds in the Place de la République, he lauded them for rejecting “intolerance and demagoguery”. But May 2002 was not, in fact, a moment of triumph. Rather it was the dying gasp of an old order, in which the fate of European nations was controlled by large establishment parties.

Jean-Marie Le Pen was an easy target for the left, and for establishment figures such as Chirac. He was a political provocateur who appealed as much to antisemites and homophobes as to voters upset about immigration, drawing his support largely from the most reactionary elements of the old Catholic right. In other words, he was a familiar villain – and his ideology represented an archaic France, a defeated past. Moreover, he did not seriously aim for power, and never really came close to acquiring it; his role was to be a rabble-rouser and to inject his ideas into the national debate.

Europe’s new far right is different. From Denmark to the Netherlands to Germany, a new wave of rightwing parties has emerged over the past decade-and-a-half, and they are casting a much wider net than Jean-Marie Le Pen ever attempted to. And by deftly appealing to fear, nostalgia and resentment of elites, they are rapidly broadening their base.

snip


sound familiar?

[BlueMTexpat]

1. One hopeful sign:

EU watchdog asks Marine Le Pen to repay €339,000 in staff salaries https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/31/eu-watchdog-asks-marine-le-pen-to-repay-339000-in-staff-salaries

Front National leader accused of wrongly claiming salaries of two aides who in fact worked mostly for her party

I hope very much that this crap ultimately harms the FN badly.

If Le Pen does not repay the €339,000 – the wages paid for the past five years to Légier, allegedly a Le Pen family bodyguard of 20 years’ standing, and Griset, who held several senior positions in Marine Le Pen’s office at the Front National HQ in Nanterre, outside Paris – the parliament could in principle begin withholding part of her MEP’s salary and expenses.

Other MEPs from the Eurosceptic, anti-immigrant party have been accused of similar abuses, including Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie, and the Front National veteran Bruno Gollnisch, who in June were reported to be facing bills of €320,000 and €270,000. All have denied any wrongdoing.

The Olaf investigation and a parallel probe by French authorities were launched last year after the president of the European parliament, Martin Schulz, notified officials in Paris and Brussels that 20 parliamentary assistants hired by the Front National also held official positions within the party organisation.

The news comes at an unfortunate time for Le Pen, who is due to launch her campaign for the presidency early next year. Short of most of the several million euros needed fund a full campaign, the party has been relying on loans from Russian-backed banks that have reportedly not been extended.

Ironically, Putin seems to be hedging his bets everywhere - not only in the US - and using RW anti-EU parties to do so.

[dalton99]

2. Putin is a big patron of every far-right movement