Last week I started to discuss the wave of elections that have been taking place or that are imminent, mostly in the global north (or as it used to be called, less precisely, the west). These are elections in which right-wing parties have been vocal, in two cases at least threatening to take power: parties that at their most extreme embrace racism and fascism and so pose a threat to the whole world, including Africa.
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Elections in France are structured in two rounds. The second of these, the run-off (held on July 7th this year) is decisive. A major contender was the far-right party, Rassemblement National (National Rally). This mob was founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was overtly racist and anti-semitic; it is now led by his daughter, the smelly Marine Le Pen.
As they campaigned, the Russian Foreign Ministry, which is never slow in interfering in the affairs of other countries, supported the Rassemblement National (RN) by asserting: “The people of France are seeking a sovereign foreign policy that serves their national interests and a break from the dictate of Washington and Brussels [the headquarters of the European Union].”
In the first round of the elections the RN did horrifically well. This was followed by a remarkably selfless act by the two other major parties, President Macron’s centrists and a broad left-wing coalition. They agreed that in constituencies where both had a candidate, one would drop out before the second round, to consolidate opposition to the RN. Over 200 candidates did this — an admirable self-sacrifice.
I spent the evening before the second round socialising with friends from Nigeria and Cameroon, celebrating Labour’s win in the UK and bemoaning the threat posed by the RN in France. Europe already has far-right governments in countries such as Poland and Hungary, but the same in a powerful country such as France would be a much greater threat to the prospects for a decent world.
In the event, the left-wing alliance won the largest share of votes; Macron’s centrists came second and the RN third. The leftist newspaper La Libération carried a huge front-page headline reading simply “C’est OUF” (“phew!”). The left-wing alliance don’t have sufficient leverage to form a government alone, so a coalition with the centrists is inevitable, probably as uneasy one as in South Africa. And Le Pen, the leader of the RN, has growled: “The tide is rising. It did not rise high enough this time, but it continues to rise and our victory has simply been deferred.”
I’m rounding off this piece with a rather long quotation from a British newspaper (the I — that stands for Independent) of July 10th. The author is Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, one of the country’s most vigorous left-wing commentators. In an article titled “Young voters have saved the soul of France” she observed: “Yes, hard times are coming. President Macron will have to learn to manage a disparate parliament [as in South Africa, one might add, with their uneasy coalition government].
But I am euphoric that Le Pen’s National Rally was pushed to the bottom by Macron’s centrists and the left-wing alliance. The continent that birthed fascism, lands which dehumanised and tried to exterminate Jewish, black, gay, mixed race people, not that long ago, now has politicians whipping up intense animosity towards immigrants, people of colour and ‘lefties’. How did this come to pass? Have people forgotten why the Allies fought the Nazis and the Italian fascists?”
To be concluded
Chris Dunton is a former Professor of English and Dean of Humanities at the National University of Lesotho.
