They are pathetic - in the sense they are now almost negligible.
In 1945, the French Communist Party commanded 25% of the vote. Think about it, one full quarter of the voters were ready to support a Stalinist party. Forty years later, the joke was that Beaujolais Nouveau had that big advantage over the Communist Party that it would always get 12.5%. In 2002 the French Communist Party only commanded 3.5% of the vote, and this time they barely managed 1.8%. Even the weakest beer or eggnog now beats the Communist Pary hands down.
The non-Communist Extreme-Left, which was supposed to be the next big thing after its good results in 1995 and 2002, shrank from 10% to 6-7%. The Greens, once able to deliver 11% of the vote, shrank to 1.7%.
On the Right, it’s the same situation. The small parties have been nearly annihilated. The National Front goes from 16% to 10%, while the “Sovereignist” party of de Villiers barely scores 2.5%.
If this trend continues, France will soon have only three meaningful parties : a “Socialist” one, a Centrist one, a Conservative one. We’ll be a bit like the UK or the US, only with a Centrist Party able to get governmental status.
The European left is in denial though.
After the collapse of the USSR its reflexive, pathological hatred of America came untethered from any anchor it might have had in the past.
To persuade people that they should fear the United States might be relatively simple, but to convince them that the U.S. is more threatening to their personal security-and by extension, the sustainability of their culture-than an Islamic supremacism flourishing in their midst is a tougher slog.