In the recent elections in France, the far right loomed on the precipice of power. The only thing that stopped them from winning was the mobilisation of the far left. The far right was defeated, and the centrist Emmanuel Macron lost 70 MPs. The left, meanwhile, came out on top.
This victory is the fruit of the broad mobilisation of trade unions and citizens. The main French trade unions put all their strength into the battle, called for the construction of a Popular Front and, with the majority of the French trade union organisations, raised a call to protest and vote against the extreme right.
This intense mobilisation enabled the forces of the left to unite and form a front against the far right, at a time when part of the ruling class was ready to collaborate with rightwing extremists. This was a magnificent victory, which no polling institute had predicted, and which remains very fragile. To ensure that the popular upsurge does not turn into a reprieve, lessons must be learned.
Voting for the far right is no longer just a protest vote, but a misguided vote of hope. To combat this, it is vital that the forces of the left unite to propose alternatives to the neoliberal policies that are fuelling social despair.
The programme of France’s New Popular Front was a break with Macronism. The violence of neoliberal globalisation, deindustrialisation, the closure of public services and the devaluation of work whose wages no longer allow people to live all generate a powerful feeling that things were better before. The far right has seized on this and turned it into a cultural issue with its “great replacement” theory.
The far right ignores the ravages of neoliberalism and blames immigrants for the relative decline in living conditions. In order to protect capitalist globalisation, the far right shifts our attention away from finance and towards cultural globalisation instead.
To avoid this trap, the left must be able to put forward a credible vision that will enable us to regain control over the multinational corporations and the powers of capital.
It is no longer possible to adopt a blissful approach to free trade and globalisation. We can no longer defend free trade that leads to the dumping of wages and the destruction of the environment.
The contradictions between social and environmental issues are a breeding ground for the far right. To overcome them, it is essential to attack capitalist powers. For example, the transition of the car industry from internal combustion to electric vehicles is being used by carmakers as a tool to increase the relocation of factories away from France and towards low-income countries in the global south.
Renault and Stellantis are closing dozens of factories in France and concentrating on top-of-the-range electric vehicles, often not even produced in France, which guarantee them maximum margins. A double whammy for workers: tens of thousands of job losses and the financial impossibility of buying an electric vehicle, and therefore soon of being able to drive in large parts of the country. This risks a provoking a blacklash against electric vehicles and other climate technologies.
To win back the blue-collar vote, the left needs to make a strong case for reindustrialisation, and breaking with the great blindness of the 1990s and 2000s in favour of a factory-free economy. We need to radically transform the production model to make it environmentally sustainable. The same applies to agriculture and food. To respond to the mobilisation of farmers who are demanding to be able to make a living from their work, we need to attack the profit margins of agricultural giants instead of, as the French government has done, calling into question the environmental transition of the agricultural model.
A critical assessment of public services needs to be done. Austerity measures have considerably weakened the quality of care in public schools and hospitals. All those who can afford it are turning to the private sector. This pauperisation of public services is fuelling the “tax bowl”. The middle classes feel they are having to bleed to pay for public services from which they no longer benefit, while at the same time the richest pay no more tax.
Professionalised politicians are less and less representative of the realities experienced by workers. Bending to the dictates of employers, politicians give them an excessive say on pay and working conditions. We need to build a new relationship between the left and the trade unions, one that respects their independence.
All over the world, the far right comes to power through an alliance with the right and part of the business community. This is being organised by a number of billionaires such as Vincent Bolloré and Pierre-Édouard Stérin in France and Elon Musk in the United States, who are buying up press titles and social networks to wage their ideological offensive.
A full 80 years after the second world war, the dykes built against fascism are falling. Macron’s strategy of demonising part of the left in the same breath as attacking the extreme right has undermined our ability to respond to the far right.
By turning the far right into a party like any other, and by echoing their talking points on immigration and security, Macron and the right are trampling on the heritage of Gaullism and the French resistance.
The far right are not regular political opponents. They are openly racist, homophobic, sexist and antisemitic.
Racist violence by far-right groups has helped to open people’s eyes to the true nature of their party. But everyone needs to put their own house in order. Voting for the far right has a racist component, and trade union organisations must step up their campaigns against racism.
The trivialisation of the far right is flourishing, particularly since the attacks of 7 October. The French trade union organisations have just decided to join forces in a major campaign against racism and antisemitism in the workplace to show that these struggles are inseparable and must not suffer from any ambiguity. It’s a momentum that must be replicated.