France in the Grip of Political Chaos

'France is like a man falling from a building who, floor by floor, says to himself “so far so good”.' The question is, what will it do after it goes 'splat'?!

From The European Conservative

By Álvaro Peñas

France is like a man falling from a building who, floor by floor, says to himself “so far so good.”

After the announcement of the first exit polls in France, both professional and social media were very soon flooded with the message: “France is being saved from fascism.” I would add “again,” because in recent years it seems that even when Jean Marie Le Pen was president of the then Front National, France has done nothing but save itself from the extreme Right. On the other hand, many on the Right have spoken of the fall of France, not for the first time either, and the apparent triumph of chaos. Some have mentioned Michel Houllebecq’s novel Submission, a ‘fictional’ story in which all parties support an Islamist candidate to prevent the victory of the FN candidate. The Islamist becomes president of the Republic and France moves steadily and smoothly towards Islamisation. Today, that story doesn’t seem very fictional; after all, Islam is increasingly present in France.

However, and despite the victory of a New Popular Front in which so-called “Islamo-leftism” is an increasingly worrying reality, we have not yet entirely arrived at the scenario set out in Submission. Rather, what happened on Sunday in France reminded me more of a film that is about to turn thirty years old: La haine (“Hatred”).

The film, a cult film for many left-wing activists, tells the story of three marginal youths living in a Parisian suburb where they suffer the consequences of fascism, represented by police violence and the prejudices of French society. Even Le Pen appears, cheered as president by violent skinheads. The social hatred caused in that film by a fascist ascendency is in reality becoming more and more widespread in French society today, but not from the Right. Instead, hatred is exhibited in the demonstrations and riots provoked by the Left, whether they win or lose the elections, because any excuse is a good one to wreck the streets and loot shops; there is hatred in the anti-fascist collectives who have no qualms about attacking women like those of the Nemesis Collective; there is hatred in the Islamo-leftist militants who target and attack Jews just because they are Jews; there is hatred in the violence against the French, in the Islamist attacks that have left hundreds dead; and there is hatred is the increasingly occurring burning of churches. And all this hatred was not created by Le Pen.

There is also fear. Like hate, fear is another attribute predicated of the Right, and yet the strategy of fear has been a favourite of French political parties to halt the advance of Le Pen’s party. “The extreme Right divides and leads to civil war, because it pits people against each other depending on their religion or their origin,” Macron said just over a fortnight ago. He also referred in similar terms, speaking of “civil war,” to the extreme Left, but has not hesitated to throw himself into their arms to stop the supposed extreme Right. When the Left provokes a civil war, it is called a revolution.

The result of Macron’s ‘centre’ support for the far-left has led to an electoral victory for the New Popular Front, which has gained 51 seats to 182, while the centrists have lost 76 seats and dropped to 168. The Macronist prime minister, Gabriel Attal, announced his resignation, although he said he was prepared to lead an interim government in the face of an “unprecedented political situation.” Macron’s gamble does not seem to have been successful.

On the Right, the popular French Republican Party lost 11 seats and is down to 60, amid strong internal divisions over which path to take in the face of the unstoppable rise of Le Pen’s party. Of all the parties, National Rally (RN) has grown the most in votes and seats, gaining 54 for a total of143. It is a huge success, no doubt, but one that seems little relative to the expectations created in the European elections and in the first round. RN has managed to break the cordon sanitaire of the other parties and has forced Macron into an unnatural alliance, but it must convince more French people that they are not the ones harbouring hatred and fear. In this sense, it is imperative to distance itself from the Kremlin, and indeed the Russian foreign ministry’s support before the elections was a poisoned gift to Le Pen, who called it “interference.”

But back to La Haine: at the beginning and end of the film, the story is told of a man who falls from a fifty-story building. To reassure himself as he falls, the man keeps repeating to himself: “So far so good, so far so good” But it’s not the fall that’s important, it’s the landing. France is the man who falls from the building and who, floor by floor, says to himself “so far so good.” But no matter how much he deludes himself, the ground is getting closer and closer and the landing can only end in one way. The next government, especially if we consider the migration policies proposed by the Left, may further accelerate the fall and the impending disaster. The big question, which we must also ask ourselves when we think of the West as a whole, is: will France react in time, or will it do so when it is too late?