The Front National’s Tactical Winning Streak Continues
Patrick Le Brun2,238 words
Since the election of Marine Le Pen to the head of the Front National the party has moved from one tactical victory to another. As the baton passed from the previous generation the coalition of “tendances” that forms the party has also changed. This is key to their current and future success, as well as a lesson to all White Nationalists who seek reform through political institutions.
The Old Base
The base of Jean-Marie Le Pen’s support was the non-Jewish deportees of Algeria and the veterans who fought to keep the colony. They felt betrayed by De Gaulle who had “heard their concerns and understood them” before pulling out. (Jean-Marie Le Pen left his seat in the Assemblée National to serve with distinction in the elite paratrooper corps, where he lost an eye.) Another base of support is among the Traditional Catholics whose politics are often anti-Republican and anti-Enlightenment. The most controversial were the Vichyists, who were often rabidly anti-communist and did not trust a government whose right wing treated them more harshly than the communist trade union was ever treated. The least ideological of the supporters were the mom-and-pop business owners who were attracted to the “Poujadiste” economic model which favored them.
The decision faced by the party when Jean-Marie Le Pen stepped down was between Bruno Gollnisch and Marine. Gollnisch’s supporters had a table set up outside the portico of St. Nicolas de Chardonnet, Paris HQ for the schismatic Traditionalists of the Society of Saint Pius X. Marine was a divorcée who was “very pious as a child” but who no longer practiced. Gollnisch promised to hold firm on the social issues that the religious right lost long ago. He also had the distinction of being sued for Holocaust denial. At the May 1st rally that preceded the vote, the old men who annually march with their Algerian service medals on their chests and their wives on their arms were clearly not the future of the party. Only Gollnisch made an appearance among the party faithful in front of the Opera Garnier before the march to the statue of Jean d’Arc began. He was treated like a rock star by the young, well-dressed Catholics, clearly the activist base of the party.
A Party or a Church?
Marine Le Pen won the support of 2/3 of the party and Gollnisch the rest. One very upset Traditionalist Catholic told the television cameras “she wants to run the party in a way that will get as many votes as possible.” For her, this is clearly not the way to run a political party. Like many other Traditionalists, she wants her church to be run like a political party and she wants her political party to be run like a church.
Many had speculated that the Jean-Marie Le Pen loved being the “Devil of the Republic” more than he like being a viable candidate. Every time that he came close to a mainstream breakthrough he would make naive statements in the media that would feed the fears of the FN as a return to Vichy. The fear that Jean-Marie Le Pen saw his real calling as being a media personality than a successful party leader supporting down-ticket candidates provoked the departure of his top political operatives to create the MNR, two years after the breakthrough Presidential race of 2001.
The First Test – Regional Elections of 2009
Marine Le Pen has made media appearances since her teens in support of her father and later in support of her own candidacy, but she never had this problem. She is the Iron Lady of France bravely facing down the gangs of media and political hacks on television discussion shows (think of how Nick Griffin would have acted in a dream performance on Question Time and multiply that by twice a week).
There are only a handful of times where she has expressed true joy in front of the cameras. The second round vote of the Regional elections was one of those times. The big news of the night was the pitiful performance of the UMP (the Center-Right Union for a Popular Movement) which won only 1 of 26 regions. But Marine was looking behind the numbers.
One must understand that French elections are held in 2 rounds. The first round is a multi-party Royal Rumble where half a dozen Trotskyite fractions and the “Hunting Fishing Nature Traditions Party” have a theoretical shot at leading. The second round places the top 2 performers in a death match. Sometimes it’s UMP vs. the PS (the Socialist Party), the UMP vs. the Front National, or the Front National vs. the Socialist Party. In cases of the Front National vs. the Socialist Party, the UMP has consistently backed the Socialists, reinforcing Marine Le Pen’s discourse about the false sense of choice between the two main parties. Had Sarkozy and the UMP made a coalition with the FN, just as the PS routinely makes coalitions with the Communists, the UMP would still control 1 in 3 regions, instead of just 1.
What made Marine Le Pen so happy was that for the first time, the FN gained votes in the FN vs. UMP matchups from Socialist voters who understand that the UMP’s true goal is union-busting through diversity, and the FN has become at least the second choice for the working class, native French.
Marine, Presidente!
Now with the wind at her back, Marine Le Pen began the road to the Élysée Palace. She saved her most vicious attacks for the unpopular President Sarkozy. Nearly 4 years into a global economic crisis, his old slogan “work more to gain more” or his promise to represent “the French who work” rang hollow. While France had weathered the crisis better than all its neighbors, with the exception of Germany, the electorate was thinking ahead to future austerity and future unemployment.
The FN made easy work of blaming the Euro and the EU as the Sovereign Debt Crisis continued to crescendo. This helps the FN overcome the “one-issue party” stigma in the press.
It did not matter that the press was united in its opposition to the FN. Marine continued to battle until Election Day where she attained an all-time high for the FN, 17.9% (Sarkozy got 27% and Hollande 28%) and the smallest gap with the UMP. Also, the age breakdown showed that 19% of under 30 voters backed the FN. Gone were the days when the FN was a party for old, angry men and the entire youth of France would mobilize in the streets for a Center-Right wet blanket like Chirac.
Ni Droite, Ni Gauche, Front National!
By a stroke of luck, May 1 fell in between the 1st and 2nd round of voting. The crowd was so large that the parade was reversed, from the statue of Jean d’Arc on rue de Rivoli to the Opera. On the way there the chant that rang the loudest was “Neither Right, Nor Left, Front National.”
On the steps of the Opera, Jean-Marie Le Pen gave his annual history lesson, then Marine gave her marching orders. A play on words in French that does not translate directly, “Vote Blanc Dimanche et pour la vague Blue Marine en Juin.” That is to say, vote an empty (white) ballot now and vote for the Navy blue wave in June (the Legislative elections).
One of the peculiarities of the French system is that one may drop an empty envelope into the ballot box as a way of saying, “both you guys suck.” Since the participation rate is so high, there is always about 1% or so of these.
Another record! 5.8%, that is over 2 million voters, the highest percentage and raw number ever in the 5th Republic voted “Blanc.” Most of these voted FN in the 1st round. 50% of Marine’s voters abstained or voted “Blanc.” About 17% of her voters supported Hollande in the 2nd round. Holland won by 1.25%.
(By contrast the perennial Centrist Party candidate, François Bayrou endorsed Hollande, but his electorate voted overwhelmingly for Sarkozy. This was clearly a career-preserving move. The PS did not return the favor last Sunday when they defeated him in his legislative seat.)
The UMP, Between Jews
Nicolas Sarkozy stepped down from the limelight. This grandson of a Hungarian Jew whose guiding principles were not that far from the late rapper Eazy-E (“Life ain’t nothin’ but bitches and money”) said “adieu” to France. Later he gave his final orders to the party: hold fast in fighting against the FN. He left the party in the not so able hands of Jean-François Cope, the grandson of a Romanian Jew and an active Freemason.
The head of the UMP’s legislative group is François Fillon, a devout Catholic and father of 6. It seems he was the workhorse of the last five years, spending late nights slaving away, while Sarkozy was drinking champagne and banging models. It is easy to imagine Fillon as the next party leader if Cope is seen as ineffective. It is also easy to see him having less of a problem building electoral alliances with the FN than Sarkozy and Cope.
Returning to the Assemblée Nationale
The elections for the French Parliament were held in the month following the presidential election. The Front National only sat in the Parliament of the 5th Republic under Mitterrand. Mitterrand had briefly changed from district to proportional seating as a tactic to slow down a fractured right from returning to power. Since then the FN only achieved a handful of Mayoral elections in the south.
In the June election progress was definitely made. It certainly cannot be characterized as a wave, but it has elements of promise and of old problems. Two seats were won by the FN and one by the Mayor of Orange (pop. 30,000) who left the party in the schism mentioned above.
First the problematic, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, the beautiful blonde 22-year-old niece of Marine became the youngest member of Parliament in the history of the 5th Republic. One can imagine she will not be making a huge splash for some time. While the FN ran many candidates without the last name of Le Pen, it is hard to shake the feeling that this is a family enterprise. Like Marine, she grew up in the manor that doubles as party headquarters. Anyone named Le Pen in France has to have thick skin, but it is easy to believe that the experience of being a total pariah surrounded by hundreds of legislators and thousands of staffers hoping for your failure would overwhelm any 22-year-old. That being said, I wish her luck.
The promising sign is the election of Gilbert Collard, known widely as Maître Collard (an honorific for lawyers). A former Socialist and member of MRAP (an anti-racist NGO), he has since moved to hold the position that France must remain French. He has decades of experience in the media spotlight and it is hard to list many equals when it comes to televised roundtable debates (a favorite format in France). If the FN is to ever arrive in power it will not be thanks to voters from FN voting families. To bring these voters into the fold it is necessary to have a voice like Maître Collard who has no connection to Vichy or Algérie française and no knee jerk stranger-danger. He came to the FN in the same way that so many Socialist and Gaullist and youth voters came and will come to the party.
From Protest to Preference
For decades the press would treat a rise in the FN vote as a protest or a gauge of anger. Now that the FN runs city halls and sits in Parliament, a vote for the FN carries the implicit understanding that this party might win. How they will govern is less of an unknown element than in the past.
The ability of the FN to maintain message control while increasing the number of voices will be the next big challenge. Continuing to convince voters on the right to continue to risk Socialist control in order to convince the UMP leadership that it can’t win without them, will be an even greater challenge. The oligarchs may change their “right wing” PR man, and the insecurity and immigration rhetoric may seem credible again.
However, I remain hopeful. So far, Marine Le Pen has pursued the mass party strategy with discipline. The fact that none of the old guard nationalists made it into Parliament means that message control should be maintained. The FN is no longer a party defined by its historical baggage, but a party defined by the future it promises.
As an aside, Copenhagen has avoided the problems of Oslo and Stockholm. Vienna is an Austrian city, whereas Munich and Berlin often don’t feel German. The difference is that Nationalist Parties are essential partners in Right wing governments in Denmark and Austria. But in other countries the nationalists are ignored in the halls of power. France has a constitution and a multi-party structure that is conducive to nationalists entering into power sharing with the “liberal right” (capitalists) or with socialists (if we may dream big).
Within this decade Marine Le Pen may lead the FN into being the necessary component of any ruling Parliamentary coalition. And after 5 years of the Socialists imposing austerity on behalf of the dream of a United Europe, the shouts of “Marine Presidente” will be louder than ever.
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9 comments
Let’s hope that the FN, if given the opportunity in a coalition, does not end up like the MSI – National Alliance in Italy under Fini; compromised to irrelevance.
Wishful thinking and misleading article, should be preceded by a warning notice.
The FN have had to dilute their patriarch’s worldview and program so much that it seriously does not matter what becomes of them, even with millions of votes. There may be balls about for halting further immigration, but there’s none for reversing the assimilation of millions of non-white racaille, nevermind expulsion.
Come on, a campaign poster featuring a hip college mulatta with an “afro”? The thing is finished. The European system and the nature of their political ideologies permits an appearance of possibility which has consistently failed to metastasize — Liga Nord, NPD, FN, et al. All these names prove is that parliamentarianism is superficial and useless in the grand scheme.
CasaPound has the better approach: forget having a toe-hold in parliament — live together, act together, become a real community. And that more or less is what Les Identitaires are doing:
http://www.bloc-identitaire.com/
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouvance_identitaire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJQ_kljlb94
No doubt they would love for their little seat at the table, but for now, they’re acting in direct self-defense of themselves as French. Unfortunately, again, they usually understand themselves to be Catholic, which identity crisis has long kept anti-international resistance in France divided or simply depressed by clinging to a (now) weak proxy for race. Tempest in a teapot sort of thing.
CasaPound / Blocco Studentesco, as far as I know, never made the mistake of associating too closely with Alessandra Mussolini and her failed Liberta d’Azione party. This is significant; I would doubt that Iannone himself is under any illusion that his social movement can or ought to go parliamentary. If he is, it’s an understandable mistake, but it would have the usual effect — alienating the youth who constitute it. The present “cell” model is working much better. Italians are very social, as everyone knows, and cells can be found based in bars or clubs all over the country, especially Bolzano, Roma, even around Sicily. This only builds on the “oi” subculture that’s been alive there for decades. Easy to shake one’s head at that, but the reason Italians take to it is, again, their intense sociability, which probably arises from greater genetic relatedness and the resulting culture.
Before asking if the FN is on its unbearably slow way to save France on such shaky foundations, we ought to ask what is depressing the French birthrate. If it is urbanism and all that encompasses, what can be done, if anything, to reverse it? France is still a breadbasket of Europe, there is an abundance of good, cheap land, and the organic farming movement is undoubtedly more popular there than any other European nation. How do we convince people to turn their backs on the blighted cities and reconnect with their soil, this soil of which nationalists are so fond of speaking? — There is the heart of the problem, not only in France, but everywhere whites live. Les Identitaires, not the FN, are in a position to join the already semi-popular agrarian movement in southern France and help them see that the cities are ruined and must be abandoned by the forward-thinking. But because the movement is urban, they are unlikely to uproot themselves from the concrete soil and live in the country, much less come to view it as the only viable alternative to urban dispossession.
You make some valid points but I think you may be making some mistakes, too.
I was not aware of the FN had
That is, indeed, troubling. However, I don’t think one horribly naive and misleading political poster is evidence enough to write the FN off completely.
Again, I think you’re throwing the baby out with the bath water. But that’s okay, I used to feel the same way. So did Adolf Hitler. He preferred trying to take power by force (the Beer House Putsch), but then he changed his mind. He realized the fundamental importance of having popular support and political legitimacy to ruling. These concepts are as old as time. Machiavelli comes to mind.
I agree that this is an excellent approach. And in many ways it is superior but not in all. I think it’s a far better strategy to write neither approach off. They aren’t mutually exclusive. One can be a part of a CasaPound like community and still vote for a nationalist/pro-white party.
I desperately wish there were communities like CasaPound in the U.S., but I decided long ago to stop wishing and lamenting and just do what is necessary to create one in our own style. I am not in a position to do this at the moment but it is a long-term goal of mine I will realize (even if it is less public than CasaPound). It really isn’t as hard as one might think. All it takes is finding a few dedicated comrades/families, moving in the same area (preferably very close, as in neighbors or in the same building), and cooperation. I already almost started the nucleolus of such a thing, but certain events made an alternative much more advantageous, so I have no complaints.
Agreed, Italians are very social and family oriented. I am of half Italian descent, which may partly explain my strong attraction to and valued placed on community based approaches like the one mentioned above.
Ah-ha! Now we get down to the really important stuff: the questions we ask ourselves. I do not think that asking, “what is depressing the French birthrate” is the best, or even that helpful of a question for us to ask ourselves. Despite constant fear mongering from our eternally defeat/losing obsessed wing, the white birthrate is not as important as one would imagine. Let’s put things in perspective: there are more white people alive today than there ever has been before. This is not to say this won’t change or that our race’s percent of the world’s population hasn’t changed, but it is still something to consider when you find yourself playing out the white population fear ritual in your head.
Another thing to consider to interrupt that ineffective, unproductive ritual: white people have never and will never compete with other races solely on the basis of birthrate and “win.” As you are probably aware, we don’t practice the r-strategies (relying on high birthrates) that, blacks for example, employ. We practice a K-strategy that relies heavily on parental care. White people have been practicing this for 1000s of years, as blacks have the r-strategy.
Blacks have a greater population than whites. Do you see blacks running the world? Do blacks have any real power in the world? No. They were given all the power they have, and it could easily be taken back, so it’s negligible. Asians — looking at them all as a single race and disregarding the pretty big racial/ethnic differences between them — have the largest population on the planet. Who has the most power on the planet? Or a better question: In what countries does the vast majority of power lie? The answer is white countries.
You’ve heard the expression, don’t work hard, work smart, yes? That’s what white people do in the area of children and power. White people don’t out breed other races. We play the game more intelligently. Given our, uhh, expansionist history and our natural talents — impressive intelligence, unparalleled creativity, and daring — I don’t think we’ll have much of a problem securing an existence for our people and a future for white children once we help prod enough of our people into being consciously pro-white.
Think about it: we ruled over half the planet. We ruled peoples in places where they were 98-99% of the population. If we put a fraction of that effort into merely securing our own existence and future and leaving other races alone, we won’t have much of a problem.
All that being said, of course we need to have more than an average of two children per family to maintain a stable population. But people’s lives are so messed up from so many different angles in white countries, can you blame them for not choosing to bring more children into the world? I imagine if we solved even a fraction of the illnesses and woes plaguing our people, our birthrate would return to healthy levels. On a side note, I’d like EVERY race’s population to decrease ideally. I think there are too many people on the planet, but that’s beside the point.
SO, a more helpful and effective question to ask than, “what is depressing the French birthrate” or what is depressing the white birthrate” is:
How can we secure an existence for our people and a future for white children?.
OR even better, make it personal:
What can I do to help secure the existence of our people and a future for white children?
Then, after answering that, if you’re feeling really crazy — ya know, dedicated, motivated, etc., like it’s important in your life — try this one on for size: What can I do _today_, what action can I take _today_ to help secure the existence of my people and a future for white children?.
If we got enough pro-whites to ask themselves those questions habitually, watch out! We might make more progress in a year than we have in 60.
Lastly, I would like to address your agrarian and, anti-urban sentiments.
I can really sympathize with your sentiments. Personally, I despise cities and the urban lifestyle. I think it’s unhealthy and has tremendous downsides. I would never want to raise my future children in a city. My goal is to have a house in the country with plenty of land, a garden, maybe a farm, and relatively easy access to mountains and/or forests. I want my children to have a real connection with nature, with the soil.
That being said, we also must realize that cities are centers of power and influence. If we wish to reach the critical mass necessary to secure our existence in state exclusively for us than we are going to need to influence and reach our suburban, urban, and urban-centered folk.
I don’t know if you’ve read The Young Hitler I Knew but I would highly recommend it if you haven’t. In it, Hitler’s best childhood friend recalls how Adolf loved to walk for hours in the countryside, in the forest, but expressed to his friend how he always had this strange, uneasy feeling if he stayed too long, like he was drawn back to town or the city. It was as if his natural inclination was to love and be close to nature but his soul/unconscious new that he had a more important calling that required he be in a center of influence. This is far from the only similar item of great significance to be found in that book. It is also a thoroughly enjoying read.
Back to the point, though: Even National Socialism drew a significant portion of its support from urban centers. We should not write off and abandon our urban folk because they have some unhealthy habits. There are still many white people in urban environments who are comparably more healthy than many of those in more agrarian communities. It would be much more effective if we asked ourselves how we can strike a balance; how can we get the support of our folk in both agrarian and urban areas and help promote as healthy a lifestyle as we can for both, without requiring them to move or turning them off to our message?
One more thing.
“The FN is no longer a party defined by its historical baggage, but a party defined by the future it promises.”
Every politician promises a wonderful future.
We must be cautious and see how this works out. It seems to me, the liberals actually won this election.
The Socialists are now stuck with implementing EU austerity, since France is not too far behind Spain, Greece, etc. in terms of deficits. Le Pen is positioned to champion French nationalism/sovereignty AND France’s generous welfare state and the “little [French] guy.” The mainstream is committed to dismantling France for the benefit of the EU and the globe, and the Left will have to take the lead now, and the responsibility. Le Pen will be the only credible candidate to say: Let’s preserve France, but we have to do it by dumping the EU, globalization, and non-white immigration.
Considering that building a racialist left is a subject interesting many of us on this site, it might be handy to take a look at a similar current in France. Specifically, Alain Soral. His organization, Egalite et Reconciliation is an organization which is attempting to build a nationalist left alternative in France. They support the FN (officially, maybe, though I can’t remember at this moment), and Soral served on its central committee. Moreover, they are influenced more by the ethnic particularist philosophy of Alain de Benoist. Aside from Catholic traditionalists, royalists and nationalists they also have French nationalist Muslims who recognize ethnic particularism and Europeans as a distinct people in their ranks, such as a man named Albert Ali. It’s motto is “Gauche du travail, Droite des valeurs : pour une réconciliation nationale” (the labour Left, the values Right; for national reconciliation). It has received some attention from Traditionalists as well for these reasons.
As for the FN vs Identitaire dilemma, I think it’s a false one. The rise of the FN is causing people across the political spectrum to become friendlier towards nationalism and take another look at it, including some on the left (Soral was formerly a member of the Communist Party). If the FN moves on a political front and the Identitaire movements on a social one (as Casa Pound has done), then both political and social nationalism will be advanced in society and a broader discussion and shift in ideas can take place more easily. Gramscianism of the right, ftw.
Catholics of the Tradition, to which I belong, on the whole do not believe in democracy nor in the democratic process. Most of them will not vote, or, if they do it will be only in specific circumstances. A fair number of them could be considered as monarchists. Some of them will of course vote for the FN, as for the payaso Soral, that is another question.
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