Candidates Quit to Block Far-Right Resurgence in France

For the first time ever since the Second World War’s Vichy France- a puppet rump state of Hitler’s Germany, a far-right party in France has snowed its resurgence amidst anti-immigration sentiments in Europe. Marine Le-Pen’s far-right party National Rally (RN) has secured the top position in the 1st round of France’s snap election, which was held after President Emmanuel Macron dissolved the National Assembly on June 9.

Vote Share After First Round

After the 1st Round of the snap elections, the National Rally has secured 33.21% vote, followed by the left wing New Popular Front (NPF) with 28.99% votes, formed to counter the far-right block. At third, comes Macron’s block of Ensemble with 21.28% votes, followed by the Republicans and miscellaneous right candidates, garnering 10.17% votes, with an overall turnout of 66.71%, the highest since 1997. A total of 76 candidates were directly elected in the first round and the RN-supported candidates qualified for the second round in 444 other constituencies, followed by 415 for the NFP and 321 for Ensemble.

The Islamophobic Far Right: Muslims Expresses Fear

Much of the nearly 6 million Muslim population of France are in fear of Marine Le-Pen’s lead after the first round of elections. Fatima, a Muslim French citizen, told Al Jazeera, “I am feeling betrayed by France. Knowing that 10.6 million people voted for a party promoting the ban of the veil in the public space is hurtful.” Another French citizen Tiziri said to Al Jazeera, “The National Rally is saying that dual-nationality holders will not be allowed to work in ‘strategic positions in the state’. This is compromising my future in this country. I am studying political science and would like to work in public affairs, so if this bill passes, would I have studied for nothing?” 

The National Rally has been a staunch opponent to immigration and is clearly adhering to Islamophobia to push its “France for French First” agenda, while discriminating against the citizens who aren’t of French origin. Marine Le-Pen has even called for a ban of hijab in public spaces, a deliberate far-right conservative stance of invasion of state into religious matters. Muslim representatives express their fearful concern about their freedom of worship being restricted and treated as a “second-class citizen”. As the far-right RN’s project and rhetoric are based on Islamophobia, Muslims cannot be the scapegoat of France’s societal problem, who have equally helped in the construction of France.

Also Read: The Global Rise of Far-Right Politics: A Balanced Analysis of 2024

Candidates Quit to Block the Far Right

Fearing the far-right victory, over 200 candidates from the centrist and left parties have withdrawn from the French election as they seek to block the far-right resurgence in France. The rivals are hoping that the withdrawal of the candidates will let the votes unify against Marine Le-Pen’s National Rally and restrict it from getting an absolute majority of 289 seats of the 577 National Assembly seats..

Ahead of Tuesday’s 6pm (local time) deadline of registration, nearly 200 candidates from the centre and left have dropped their candidature. BBC reported that although there has been no formal list of dropped candidates have been released, over 214-218 candidates have windrew themselves from their constituencies to contest, reducing the number of three-way contests to around 108, down from just over 300.

RN president and hopeful-PM Jordan Bardella has criticised these arrangements and tagged them as “alliance of dishonour” among parties that were previously at odds with each other.
Marine Le-Pen, the leader of RN in the parliament, while speaking to BBC, has also accused President Macron of conducting an “administrative coup d’etat” after hearing that he was making several key appointments in the police and army just a few days before the vote. Meanwhile RN’s far right candidate Ludivine Daoudi withdrew from the electoral race after an old social media post of him wearing a Nazi cap surfaced online.