France's Political Mainstream Panders To Far Right Voters

We are 22 days away from the first ballot in the upcoming French presidential election. In the last few days, the whole spectrum of the political parties have played a fear game based on the question of national identity. As we could see throughout the mainstream media, the two leading parties of the right and left wings, the Socialists and the center-right, rallied some traditional far-right ideas and their ideological proposals.

On the one hand, the Socialist Party candidate Segolene Royal wants French families to keep the national flag at home to unwrap their blue-white-and-red colors on July 14, national Bastille Day. She also wants French people to memorize the "Marseillaise," the national anthem. Furthermore, Royal announced that delegates will sing the Marseillaise as a lyrical conclusion to end every Socialist convention. No doubt those proposals are shamelessly courting the jittery far-right voters, who may change their vote at the last moment.

On the other hand, the Union for a Popular Movement and their leader Nicolas Sarkozy has unveiled an odd idea about a Ministry of Immigration and National Identity, which is a genuine and extremist far-right proposal. The proposal is so scandalous that the former minister Simone Veil, who recently gave her support to Sarkozy as a representative of the French Jewish community, is now withdrawing that support She publicly criticized this ministry for the reason. She prefers the word "integration" rather than "national identity." Thus some Jews who were supporting Sarkozy because the rightist candidate backed Israeli policy in the Middle East are now rallying to vote for Francois Bayrou's centrist party, the UDF.

As a matter of fact, 22 days before the first ballot, we approach the time when stress turns into a great fear. Truly everybody wonders whether the far-right slice of the electorate could repeat the upset of the first ballot that it achieved in 2002, when the National Front's leader Jean-Marie Le Pen defeated the socialist Lionel Jospin, allowing the racist and xenophobic far-right to reach the second round of the presidential election for the first time.

Royal and Sarkozy are trying hard to reduce this great threat and trauma, but at the same time, they are sharply tempted to court a part of this far-right electorate for their own benefit.

As we can easily see, this is a very dangerous Machiavellian game being played overtly and cynically with sacred democratic values. Moreover, the whole French people are judging this political bargain, so the voters are widely conscious that their major politicians favor ethnic confrontations instead of national unity, as when Sarkozy in winter 2005 called the suburban youngster "scum," helping to fan a three-weeks fire in the suburbs around Paris.

As an obvious maneuver to clear the road for his hard law-and-order policy, he is now responding to the far-right demands. The same cause always produces the same effect. A few days ago, in the upcoming presidential election, this far-right provocation by the two leading candidates electrified the Parisian atmosphere, leading to a riot in the Gare du Nord. Suddenly, hundreds of youngsters rebelled against policemen who were just trying to arrest a man riding the subway without a ticket, which is common. However, the growing mob destroyed everything in the station before the eye of the cameras. Thus, the French people saw on television a remake of the 2005 suburban nightmare, but even worse because it took place in the center of Paris.

Meanwhile, the centrist candidate Francois Bayrou criticized this strategy of the two leading candidates Sego-Sarko (as French People call them) who play and bet unconsciously on inter-ethnic fear just to win the presidential race.

According to the pollsters, Bayrou has lost points in the recent polls. But the pollsters didn't say frankly that they question only non-suburban populations. Despite the polls, Bayrou is as popular in the suburbs as a champion boxer could be. On the contrary, Sarkozy sets the crowd on fire and incites violence immediately when he appears in any suburban town.

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