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Why France’s nationalist revolution could be coming for Britain too
The radical reshaping of the French political landscape offers a glimpse of an all-too-possible future for our country
Will the summer of 2024 go down in the history books as the most dramatic that France has seen since the student uprising of May 1968? Paris had already been bracing itself for the Olympic Games in late July.
First came the shock of the European elections a fortnight ago, when France’s electoral map was transformed as the hard right Rassemblement Nationale (National Rally) swept into first place.
Then, rather than accept this crushing defeat, President Emmanuel Macron has conjured up out of thin air the biggest political crisis for decades. Alone, without consulting ministers, Macron called a snap election for France’s own legislature, the National Assembly. Two rounds of voting will be held on June 30 and July 7.
At a stroke, he detonated the whole party system. The only party that remained united was the National Rally, now Marine Le Pen’s electoral vehicle, but also the latest, less extreme incarnation of the Right-wing movement founded by her Holocaust-denying father, Jean-Marie Le Pen. After a lifelong march through the institutions, she is ready not only to conquer but to consolidate her victory.
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