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14 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 30 JUNE 2024 ANALYSIS Far right alert as France goes As France heads to the polls, James Debono speaks to political and social observers to understand the impact of a possible far right victory in a snap election called by President Emanuel Macron TODAY France will be voting in the first round of snap parliamen- tary elections which are sending shockwaves across Europe. The results could possibly accel- erate a global shift to the right and weaken the ruling centrist coali- tion in the EU. The latest polls are showing the far-right National Rally and its right-wing allies in the lead with around 36% of the vote, the left wing New Popular Front trailing at 29% and Emmanuel Macron's centrist alliance in a humiliating third place at 21%. The outcome of the election will probably remain unknown till next week's second round. But while in all previous elec- tions, voters from across the polit- ical spectrum have rallied against the far right, this will probably not be the case this time round due to the inroads made by National Ral- ly among conservative voters who previously backed the centre right Republicans. The embattled lead- er of the Republicans, Eric Ciotti, broke with tradition earlier this month to back the National Rally's bid to power. This suggests President Emma- nuel Macron's gamble to call an immediate election after his par- ty's debacle in the European Par- liament election and turn it into a stark choice between his centrist 'together' movement and the far right has not paid off. A quickly assembled coalition of socialist, communist and green parties has emerged as the main alternative to the far right. The election will be a major test for Marine Le Pen's 'de-demonisa- tion' strategy which saw the party widening its appeal by abandon- ing her father (and party founder) Jean Marie Le Pen thuggish antics and presenting the 28-year-old Jordan Bardella as the party's post- er boy candidate for prime min- ister, without diluting the party's anti-immigrant and overtly na- tionalistic platform. The far-right paradox Maria Pisani, a human rights ac- tivist and academic is sceptical of the de-demonisation strategy, not- ing that the National Rally's plat- form is "unapologetically anti-im- migrant and far right". Its values remain antithetical to European values like human rights, she says. "The fact that we are talking of a possible far right victory in one of Europe's biggest economies speaks volumes on the dire times we live in... this was unimaginable just a decade ago," she notes. She adds that the party's "fetish" for the nation state is paradoxical in a world transformed by neo lib- eral globalisation. "They try to give the impression that by voting for them people can regain control over their lives but what they are offering is not actual control but an illusion of being in control," Pisani says. The only way through which people can have control over cor- porations, she adds, is through greater international cooperation on planetary issues like climate change. Pisani also fears that migrants are once again being used as a scape- goat for problems created by neo liberalism for which the far right does not have answers. She also notes that the EU's green new deal and measures aimed at addressing climate change have joined immigration as the bête noire of the right. "This is paradoxical especially when one considers that climate change is one of the reasons con- tributing to forced migration from regions suffering the brunt of cli- mate change," she says. Pisani is apprehensive on the global impact of a far-right victory in France. "This is not happening in a vacuum especially when one considers the increased likelihood of a Trump victory in the USA." This right-wing drift is bound to have implications on major deci- sions on climate change and the response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The far right's inroads among centrist voters Nationalist MP and former min- ister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, while critical of the National Ral- ly's anti-immigrant drift, is less dismissive of Jordan Bardella's inroads among moderate voters who traditionally voted for the centre-right. He thinks that Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella are appealing to voters who reject unrestrained laissez faire economics, thus occu- pying a niche vacated by the politi- cal centre which has been too keen on embracing the market. But Mifsud Bonnici is still con- cerned by Le Pen's divisive mes- sage. "The question remains; is this a convenient make over or a move to a more social conscious and moderate right?" He describes Macron's decision to call snap elections in the after- math of the European election as a "rushed" one which is likely to backfire on the political centre. "The gamble has failed as instead of affirming the strength of the political centre it has polarised the electorate between two strong blocks: A right wing one which in- cludes far right elements and a left (From left to right) French President Emmanuel Macron with Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro at a recent European Council summit in Brussels. Macron's gamble to take on the far-right by calling a parliamentary election could be no laughing matter for the rest of Europe. Maria Pisani