Millions voted for Le Pen: Election defeat not the end of Front National
It is dangerously simplistic to dismiss the 11 million people who voted for Marine Le Pen as far-right racists, writes Mark Stone.
Monday 8 May 2017 21:16, UK
Le Pen: the name, the face, the brand - it was all so toxic here for so long. But not anymore.聽
She lost this time, but Marine Le Pen has changed French politics.
Throughout this campaign, behind the racist tag, we have found people who defy the far-right stereotype. They are young, old, white and black, straight and gay.
They are the one third of voters who chose her; the new faces of a "sanitised" Front National, once in the wilderness, now mainstream.
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At a smart bistro in Paris's 20th Arrondissement, I met Guy Deballe. He is a National Front councillor. He is in his 40s, in a sharp suit and he is black.
"In five years, she will win," he tells me.
Mr Deballe was once a socialist but he has swung right across the established (but now defunct?) political spectrum.
"Marine Le Pen has a policy of hope. She wants to give life to France and it's not a question of skin colour, race or religion but its about keeping France alive the way it is," he told me.
"Facing her opposition, she keeps her calm, serenity and with lots of love for France. And that's what is seducing people today - those who I meet - blacks, Arabs."
I have met many "blacks and Arabs" who have .
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But it's true that across the country, Marine Le Pen has managed to tap into communities: fishing ports in the south, the rust belt in the north. They are the places where globalisation has hit not helped the communities.
She casts herself as the anti-establishment politician for the people. But you do not need to travel far from the heart of Paris to find the Le Pen roots.
In the plush suburb of St Cloud is a gated estate. It sits high above the capital with stunning views of the city. It has been Ms Le Pen's outlook for almost her whole life.
Dominating one corner, hidden by a huge beech tree, is the €9m (£7.6m) mansion where the Le Pen brand, the dynasty, began.
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The house is owned by Marine's father Jean-Marie Le Pen. "Cabinet JMLP" it says on the gate.
Marine is his political product. She only moved out of the home a few years ago. The pair do not speak any longer after a falling out which has helped with her party sanitisation process.
An MEP, a firebrand radical and convicted racist (the Nazi gas chambers were a detail of history, he once said), Jean-Marie founded the Front National in the 70s.
Through his leadership the party was unelectable. For all but a few it was a poisonous fringe party.
His bid for the presidency in 2002 became a spectacular defeat. He lost to Jacques Chirac 82.1% to 17.9%.
This time is different. Marine Le Pen received double the number of votes he secured.
She has captured the concerns and the frustrations of many people.
Eleven million voted for her. That is one in three of French voters. It is dangerously simplistic to dismiss them all as far-right racists.
Politicians will need to understand the nuances behind people's decisions; the winners and losers of globalisation are going in different directions.
I have met people who chose her who would not class themselves as racist. They are uncomfortable with the core supporters' chosen rally chant: "On est chez nous" - "we are at home" or "this is our land".
A significant number chose her this time because they bought into her sanitisation.
I met many first-time Front National supporters and from all backgrounds.
They believe she has cleaned up the image (enough) and broadened the policy platform to make her worth a punt.
If you are a fisherman whose livelihood has been hit by EU quotas, a steelworker who has watched the jobs moved to China or a coal miner who has seen the collieries shut down then was hardly for you.
But in this binary second round in the two-round French system, it was him, Le Pen or abstention.
I remember way back at the start of this extraordinary campaign meeting a psychologist from Provence simply fed up with the lack of law and order in his town.
"I am disconcerted," he told me.
"I want perhaps to change, to have new hope. So I will certainly vote Marine Le Pen."
These are some of the 11 million who chose her. If their genuine concerns are ignored by President-Elect Macron and whatever government he manages to form, the deep divisions this election has exposed will grow.
Of course, that is precisely what Marine Le Pen is hoping for; chaos and stagnation for five years so she can sweep to power in 2022. Maybe.
But remember the Front National has been saying that every five years for a few decades.
So what now for the party? Perhaps it will be sanitised further?
A new name has been suggested. Even a new leader: Marine's niece Marion is already a politician, already a Front National star.
Late into the night at her soiree, Marine Le Pen danced her defeat away. She is biding her time; playing a longer game.
