Racism in France gives Le Pen the power to fight on

The Times ^ | April 21, 2003 | Adam Sage

[MadIvan]

A YEAR ago today, Regis Demeester voted for Jean-Marie Le Pen, the National Front candidate, in the first round of the French presidential election.

“I’m a racist and I can’t stand all the immigrants who live around here,” M Demeester said as he sat in his allotment garden on the outskirts of Dunkirk, northern France, this weekend. “If I voted for the National Front, it was to scare them.”

Yet it was not just the ethnic minorities who were scared by the extreme right-wing party’s success on April 21, 2002. With M Le Pen beating Lionel Jospin, the Socialist Prime Minister, for a place in the run-off against President Chirac, the shockwaves were felt throughout all sections of society.

Newspapers said that French democracy faced its greatest threat since the Second World War; more than 1.3 million demonstrators took part in protest marches across the country; and M Chirac’s long-time adversaries on the Left abandoned the habits of a lifetime to campaign on his behalf.

In the end, M Chirac was returned to power with 82 per cent of the vote in the second round of the election and mainstream France breathed a sigh of relief at what it said was the defeat of extremism.

But in Saint-Pol-sur-Mer and other parts of provincial France such confidence seems misplaced. Last year, M Le Pen obtained one of his best results here, winning 30.29 per cent of the 10,780 votes cast in the town. The factors that induced that outcome remain present today.

There is petty crime. There are the industrial wastelands that surround a once-thriving port. Above all, there is the distrust that divides the communities. On one side of the N1 road that cuts through the suburbs of Dunkirk are the allotment gardeners: white, working-class men who cultivate onions, potatoes and a deep dislike of foreigners.

“Of course I’d vote for the National Front again,” M Demeester said. “Nothing’s changed. There are still as many immigrants around here, and they still commit as much crime as ever.”

Two months ago, burglars broke into his house, which is next to the police station in Saint-Pol-sur-Mer. He does not know who was responsible, but blames “the Algerians” from Grande-Synthe, on the other side of the N1.

“The other day I came across two of them trying to steal a couple of children’s bicycles just down the road from here,” he said. “I told them to stop and they just laughed at me. ‘What are you going to do about it?’ they said. I wasn’t always a racist, but when you have to put up with that sort of thing all the time, you end up by becoming one.”

In the bare concrete square in the centre of Grande- Synthe, Mirouane, 25, and his friends smiled amiably as they discussed such prejudice. All are the children of immigrants who came from Morocco, not Algeria as M Demeester believed, to work in the local steel factory.

“We grew up here, went to school here and got our diplomas here. But whereas all the white people I know with the same qualifications as me have a job, I’m out of work,” Mirouane said. “As soon as an employer sees your CV with an Arab name and address from Grande-Synthe, you’ve got no chance.

“There are two ways to react to racism. You can react intelligently, and put the person in his place; or you can let the hatred get the better of you. Many do. They become racist against the whites.”

It was this hatred, on both sides of the divide, that led to the National Front’s triumph a year ago. Since then, Nicolas Sarkozy, the Interior Minister, has launched a drive to win back National Front voters to the mainstream Right, promoting law and order policies and expelling illegal immigrants.

Yet despite such initiatives, M Le Pen, 75, was in ominously buoyant mood as he was re-elected as the movement’s president at its national conference in Nice at the weekend. He used the occasion to start his campaign for the regional elections next year and seemed to be confident that he could create another shock, a confidence shared by many pollsters. M Le Pen also vowed to lead his party until he is 95.

M Le Pen is likely to stand next year as candidate for the presidency of the regional council that represents Provence, the French Riviera and the Alps. If he wins, it would give him a powerful base. Many think that he can. Moreover, whereas this time last year mainstream France rose up against M Le Pen, since then, the campaign against him has petered out and it is M Le Pen, not his adversaries, who is setting the agenda.

Today, for example, his daughter, Marine, will be promoted to the National Front’s policy-making committee, from where she could launch a bid to succeed her father when he eventually retires. A divorced mother with three children, she lends the National Front the veneer of respectability that it craves.

[MadIvan]

Le Pen ferociously opposed the war in Iraq. Just to give you some idea of what is going on in "sophisticated, urbane" France these days.

You know, the place that the leftists love.

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Bump!

[Rodney King]

bump

[george wythe]

“The other day I came across two of them trying to steal a couple of children’s bicycles just down the road from here,” he said. “I told them to stop and they just laughed at me. ‘What are you going to do about it?’ they said. I wasn’t always a racist, but when you have to put up with that sort of thing all the time, you end up by becoming one.”

The unintended consequences of permissiveness and pandering.

[Princeliberty]

When Le Pen goes away or it forced
aside by someone else that is when
his party really will be a threat.
His views are increasingly in
line with the French public
he personally is a replusive
character than drives support.
But let the right charming rogue
come along and France will be his.

One thing Le Pen has right is that Chirac
is a corrupt scumbag.

[Bonaparte]

Back in Morocco, steal someone's bicycle and watch what happens -- especially if you're a white foreigner.

[okie01]

France would seem to bear a resemblance to the Jim Crow South of, say, circa 1950.

There is palpable bitterness on both sides of the N1. And a government that would prefer to look the other way.

Under these circumstances, things have a way of not working out...

[Hoppean]

I don't understand why people demonize LePen. LePen believes in putting France first and having France be for the French again. Looking out for one's own isn't a crime, except in the eyes of liberals who think you should always live at the service of others. LePen's views used to be known as something positive: "loyalty" and "patriotism."

Considering that France has a growing Muslim minority, France could use a politician who would deport those people and clean the place up. All the countries in Europe could use some nationalists, and America as well while we're at it. The Swiss are going in the wrong direction--they just joined the UN. The Swiss should be led by what I think was called the People's Party, which is right-wing and nationalist as opposed to globalist. There are a lot of these parties in Europe, and they're approaching 15% of the vote. I hope that number increases.

Had Pim Fortuyn not been shot by a Leftie eco-terrorist, he would have cleaned up Holland. There are a lot of people in Europe that are sick of the New World Order cheerleaders and the EU centralizers in Brussels.

I understand American conservatives might be miffed at LePen for not supporting the Iraq war, but then, who cares anyway? You can't expect France to rubber stamp everything the U.S. does, and we won the war anyway--they were irrelevant. Let them go their own way. No hard feelings.

[Cicero]

Yes, I was surprised by le Pen's position on the Iraqi war, I must say.

It's too bad that le Pen is such a whacko racist screwball, because the position he represents was in broad lines the most sensible of the three parties, and the only one that could save France. Unfortunately he discredits it, and he prevents anyone else from advocating what needs to be done.

[MadIvan]

Le Pen also attracts Vichy types. But in fairness, no political party in France is free of the stain of Vichy. Ask Maurice Papon.

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Pim Fortuyn was a far, far more intelligent and careful thinker than Le Pen. Le Pen is a tosser whose sole appeal is to the instincts of the gutter. For every thoughtful person he might attact, there are two or three idiots he picks up who just want to bash people of a different skin colour.

Pin Fortuyn's thesis and policies were far more elegant: you do him a terrible injustice by suggesting Le Pen, a street thug with an egomania problem is anything like him.

Ivan

[bert]

....What are you going to do about it?......

I'm going to chop off your hands!!

[Princeliberty]

Fortuyn was the best thing to come onto
the Political world Western Europe
in decades. His death was a loss to the
whole world.

[remitrom]

This is all a result of the general European oppression of serious conservative voices at the political table. Without real conservatives allowed to influence policy, extremists will flourish. Europe has never learned a thing since 1918. It is trying to force failed socialism down everyone's throat, then whines when there is normal backlash...

[Happygal]

For every thoughtful person he might attact, there are two or three idiots he picks up who just want to bash people of a different skin colour

Absolutely! There is a huge difference in being concerned about immigration to being an out-right bigoted racist!

[clockwork]

It's too bad that le Pen is such a whacko racist screwball, because the position he represents was in broad lines the most sensible of the three parties, and the only one that could save France.

That is one heck of a sentence! On one hand he's a "whacko racist", yet on the other hand his positions are the most "sensible of the three parties" and the "only one that can save France". You remind me of all the people who sit around at cocktail parties moaning about all the illegals here in the U.S. and yet won't vote for a candidate that talks about dealing with immigration issues. Pat Buchanan is the only candidate that has tried to address the immigration issue here and he was immediately branded "racist, xenophobic, anti-semitic," etc. in order to marginalize him. And, of course, the marginalization works since no good soccer mom would go out and vote for a "racist". She just goes to the next dinner party and and complains about all the illegals.

[Clemenza]

Let's see. Jean-Marie (why do Frog men have girls names?) receives 18% of the vote and people are frightened. The Francophile Paleocons claim that this pathetic showing means "a swelling backlash." Then again, the Paleos (I am a reformed Paleo myself) believe that an over-the-hill speechwriter is a viable presidential candidate.

[Charles H. (The_r0nin)]

LePen believes in putting France first and having France be for the French again.

Wow, a regular LeBuchanan...