A Republic Divided
In 1958 General Charles de Gaulle established the Fifth French Republic with a semi-presidential constitution. This system of government can be seen as marrying the worst aspects of both parliamentary and presidential systems; Russia is an example of how such a system can degrade into despotism: the broad powers granted the chief executive are intrinsically corrosive to democracy. In 2016, the French bourgeoisie united behind a traitor to the Socialist Party, Emmanuel Macron. In 2024, the ruling class is split on whether or not to bring the neofascist National Rally (RN) led by Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen to power. The center-right has largely transformed into the far-right. The left has united. The center is scrambling.
The rule of Macron has been one of empty-progressive neoliberalism, that is, a reign of immiseration justified by hollow rhetoric and the threat of neofascism. Macron, like Hilary Clinton, loves nothing more than to run against the far-right. And if anything unites neoliberal politicians around the world, it is the kind of stupefying narcissism that shreds the social fabric only to be shocked by the predictable consequences. Macron undermined the basis of the French social peace and now warns of civil war. He is the architect of the chaos that has led his party into electoral revulsion, and he is responsible for bringing the neofascists to the brink of power—but he and his party are not the only actors in this drama.
Despite the strong support of the capitalist class in France and internationally, Macron has faced consistent opposition, notably from labor unions and the uprising of the Gilets Jaunes—the largest and most combative social explosion since May '68. Yes, Macron did achieve some of his objectives like raising the retirement age, but only at great cost and by increasingly extraordinary measures. In the case of retirement, Macron's government invoked Article 49 of the constitution to force the law through without a parliamentary vote in favor. This action led to months of strikes and millions of people in the streets during the spring of 2023. The fierce contestation of Macron's rule has also led to stunning defeats: the union of country-folk and ecological activists at the ZAD of Notre-Dame-des-Landes forced the government to cancel their planned ecocidal construction project there in 2018. The humiliating collapse of Macron's party in the 2024 European parliamentary elections has halted plans for gutting unemployment benefits—and led Macron to invoke Article 12 of the constitution, dissolving the French parliament for the first time in the 21st century.
The bourgeois press has aided and abetted Macron, as well as the far-right, by a double maneuver: first, they collaborate with the RN to present the party founded by Nazi collaborators and swollen with antisemites as normal, while tarring the left-wing France Unbowed (LFI) as antisemitic. Media bosses like Vincent Bolloré promote racist clowns like Éric Zemmour. Fear, hatred, and greed are promoted daily from the pages of legacy print to the cacophony of social media. Liberty, equality, and fraternity are defended only by the left which has risen to the occasion and united in the New Popular Front (NFP) to fight against barbarism and for a new Republic.
After the first round of these snap-elections, Macron's party has again been humbled. On next Sunday's second round, there are three possible outcomes: an RN majority, an NFP majority, or a hung parliament. The latter of these seems most likely given the information currently available. Macron's party has already begun to sound out possible coalitions with the “extremes” they condemned so vigorously before the first round. While the LFI appears unwilling to compromise its program, the RN has already begun to accommodate itself to the centrist camp, e.g., twisting up their position on the retirement issue, jangling keys before the bosses. And of course, Macron could invoke Article 16 and take exceptional, emergency, dictatorial powers.
If these words above have concentrated on the political, it is because in the midst of this election the political predominates. The rise of the far-right can be viewed as a kind of protest vote, and the RN benefits from its outsider position. To many French people—especially in the deserted rural stretches of small villages—the idea of a “National Rally” that is condemned by the politicians in power has the whiff of rebellion. For them, Vichy was a long time ago, and besides, Facebook and CNews have rendered the RN palatable. The misery of neoliberalism, the destitution of their hamlets, can be easily painted as a betrayal of the Nation by shadowy elements. Islamophobia has supplemented antisemitism. A key element of this neofascism is that it denies its objective roots in historic fascism, it claims to have “changed”, it exchanges a discourse of the White Race for one of Western Civilization, it opposes “incompatible cultures”, &c. The support for the far-right is strongest among the least educated and urban fractions of society, just as the support for Macronism is deepest among comfortable retirees and urbane bourgeois.
The story of how the French left lost many workers to the far-right over the last thirty years is well-known, and the Ipsos sociological survey of the French electorate bears this out: wage-earners are split between the RN and the NFP, the far-right has more support in the private sector and the NFP in the public. The two “extremes” also split the unemployed vote. The NFP has greatest strength where left institutions like unions and associations are well-organized. The RN predominates in social deserts where politics is fully screen-mediated. The defense, maintenance, and promotion of pro-social institutions is therefore the principle work of the left, whatever the results of this election may be. For the right, the conquest of the media and sundering of social solidarity is imperative: this is why Bardella has put his finger on the issue of “loyalty” and questioned dual-nationals. The neofascists and centrists are united in their need to split the left from workers.
Yesterday the head of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) made the stakes clear, stating that if the far-right comes to power “the CGT will organize the resistance.” The program of the RN, or of a hybrid RN-Macronist coalition, or even of Macron alone as dictator will be opposed by the working class organizing in and with the Popular Front. The depoliticized technocracy which strove to maintain order in the last decade is weak. France is divided. The majority of French voters rejected the status quo. Now comes the opening salvo and the rush to realign state power. The question remains how the working class will advance.
Neither international nor French socialism has ever limited the means that can be used to conquer political power. Lenin himself has admitted that in England political power could be conquered perfectly well by the ballot box. But there is no socialist, however moderate he may be, who has ever condemned himself to expecting political power to come only through an electoral success. On that point, there is no possible discussion. Our common slogan is the slogan of Guesde, that Bracke repeated to me a little while ago: By every means, including legal means.
–Léon Blum