The timing couldn’t be more fortuitous: as the war in Ukraine unsettles political certainties across Europe and Emmanuel Macron seeks to assert himself in the diplomatic arena, voters will head to the polls for the first round of France’s presidential election on 10 April. The second round is scheduled for two weeks later. In the midst of an unexpected war and a moderate economic recovery, the French electorate will decide whether Macron gets five more years to continue down his centrist, pro-European path, or the country tacks hard to the right or left.
In Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung‘s latest dossier, we take a closer look at the candidates, issues, as well as the deeper fault lines afflicting French society: France’s Month of Decision.
Recent opinion polls suggest that Marine Le Pen has almost assured her place in the French run-off against Macron on 24 April. Things have not always been so rosy for the far-right candidate, as a look back at the past year shows. Could Marine Le Pen’s dominance of the French far right be under threat?
After her setback in the regional elections, Marine Le Pen now finds herself rattled by the unexpected rise of far-right media polemicist Éric Zemmour. Between its desire to represent a break with the status quo on the one hand, and its aspirations to electability on the other, her National Rally party is going through an identity crisis coupled with a weakening influence. But should this phenomenon be viewed as progress in the fight against the far right, or as heralding the emergence of more menacing spectres ahead?
Éric Zemmour has been electrifying the French presidential campaign since autumn 2021. Although it seems that the far-right polemicist has lost the fratricidal war against Marine Le Pen, he has managed to thrust his racist ideas into the public debate. Something Is Rotten in the State of France
Since French politics resumed after the summer break, far-right polemicist Éric Zemmour has electrified the country’s presidential campaign. Waging fratricidal warfare with Marine Le Pen, he has managed to thrust his racist ideas into the public debate.ews into the centre of the public debate.
