Then again, maybe I'm thinking in US terms, this being France it might very well work. Scare the voters back into supporting the left by threatening to burn down their homes if they don't get back on the reservation and vote "correctly", the voters cower and say, "Better do what the left tells us!"
The French weren’t always like that. Charlie Magnet used to kick a@@. So did Jean Lafayette and Charles de Gaulle. Deep down, they are not surrender monkeys. What could bring out that better part of their psyche is a big question. Maybe this is it.