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On April 24, Emmanuel Macron became the first French president since Jacques Chirac to be re-elected by defeating far-right rival Marine Le Pen in the French presidential runoff. However, Le Pen’s strong performance still left a deep impression on the world; she also praised the result of the election as “an amazing victory” for her party and supporters.
Although Le Pen is known as the “female version of Trump”, in fact, Trump is far more radical and extreme than Le Pen and the far-right leaders on the European stage. In terms of obstructive, arrogant and expressive vulgarity, the second is in his disregard for the civilization and customs precipitated by history, and the open tearing of the scars of ethnic relations in the United States. The third is in his changeable policies, lack of thought and lack of ability. Continuity aspect. And Le Pen has stepped back from his father’s extreme stance, gradually moderated the platform of his party’s “National League”, in order to promote the mainstream of this former marginal party. Of course, this may not represent real progress in her thinking, but mainly out of the practical considerations of winning voters politically.
In fact, although Le Pen is called the “far right”, because the political civilization in Europe has been highly developed, and France is also the birthplace of modern political civilization, with a profound civilizational tradition, Le Pen’s “far right” It is still within the spectrum of normal French politics, that is, it has not broken through some basic civilizational bottom lines, such as equality for all and freedom of belief. Le Pen’s father once made public anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim remarks, but Le Pen no longer insists on these political views. In this election, she attacked Macron with a focus on the economy, claiming that she will reduce the cost of living in France after taking office, which is actually close to the claims of left-wing parties. This also shows that with the evolution of European politics and French politics, the policies and propositions of far-right political parties are also rising, and they are adjusted in a direction that is more in line with the norms of modern civilization. Especially extreme racism has become a “vote killer”.
Another card Le Pen played this time was “Euroscepticism”, which showed her radical nationalist side. “Euroscepticism” is mainly a suspicion of the political model and governance structure of the EU, a super-sovereign state, which is manifested in both the far-right and far-left parties in Europe. However, the gradual advancement of European integration after World War II is not only due to the consideration of the economic interests of various countries. It is also an innovation in the governance system implemented by various countries to avoid repeating the mistakes of extreme nationalism and fascism. This makes Europe a globalized globalization. It is the region with the highest degree of integration and the highest degree of integration, and it also makes the EU a testing ground for new models of international governance that go beyond sovereign states. So far, although this experiment has entered a certain bottleneck period, it has not completely failed, and it is still very popular. The results of this French general election illustrate this point again.
Of course, due to economic sluggishness and other reasons, whether in Western Europe or Eastern Europe, “Euroscepticism” in European countries has risen in recent years, especially in the 2016 Brexit. In recent years, “Euroscepticism” and populist forces have used the European debt crisis, the refugee crisis, the new crown virus epidemic and other events to launch waves of challenges to mainstream political parties in various countries. The recent challenge initiated by Le Pen failed again. Objectively, the wave of populism in Europe has passed its peak in 2016-2017, especially the first election of Macron in 2017 gave populism a huge realistic and psychological blow, because before that populist party There is indeed a tendency to seize power in many European countries. With the stabilization of the economic situation in the euro area and the reduction of terrorist attacks, the reasons for populist parties to build momentum have also decreased accordingly, and some of their voters have moved closer to centrist and leftist parties. In fact, the rise of populism initially relied on propaganda that mainstream politics had failed, in order to provide voters with a so-called “alternative path”, and to stabilize their positions in mainstream political parties. After the real danger of populism, populism, especially right-wing populism, is not as attractive to European voters as it was in 2016.
At present, the French people still support European integration as a whole. This is not only for the reasons of values and ideas, but also because the reality tells people that European integration has brought a richer and better life. At the same time, France’s “Euroscepticism” is not limited to far-right parties, and some far-left parties also have this tendency. Therefore, some voters will be separated from the “National League” in electoral politics, which is objectively beneficial to the middle and mainstream. political party. So on the whole, as one of the leading countries in the EU (especially after Brexit), France will not be the first to shake and break in the EU chain in the short term.
In addition to the strong performance of Le Pen’s party, there is another point of alarm in this French election: about 28% of voters did not participate in the second round of voting, and the absentee rate reached the highest level since 1969. It also shows that some voters are tired of politics and nihilistic tendencies. Macron needs to revive voter confidence through reform and development. In fact, although populism is dangerous, the rise of populism is not accidental, and the so-called “demagoguery” of populism cannot be blamed entirely for the problem, nor can all supporters of populist parties be stigmatized. Because populism actually highlights some of the failures of mainstream politics, such as the lack of universal sharing of the fruits of free trade, the widening rift between the elite and the less educated, and the uneven development of urban and rural areas. In democratic politics, the occasional surge of populism is not necessarily a bad thing, because it can prompt mainstream parties to pay attention to some of their previous thinking and policy blind spots, reflect on them, and make corrections. In this sense, populism objectively serves as a reminder and correction for mainstream political parties. Like Biden, who defeated Trump in 2020, Macron, who defeated Le Pen this time, also promised to bridge the divide between the people and respond to the resentment of some people against mainstream politics, which is a wise move.
After Trump came to power in the United States in 2016, he created a series of shocks to transatlantic relations, which led to a stronger determination of Europe to enhance its strategic autonomy. At present, although Trump has stepped down, the influence of political forces in the United States with the same or similar positions as Trump is still strong and may still come to power in future elections, which makes Europe have to be vigilant and take precautions. Europe is also facing the challenge of having to strengthen its own defenses after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. In Western Europe, all these developments will only force voters to pay more attention to European integration and their political leaders to make greater efforts to strengthen Europe, because after all, most people are the sharers of the achievements of European integration. Macron is also bound to perform better in EU politics, in order to further realize the original purpose of the EU’s founding – to become an independent and powerful pole in a multipolar world. Although populist parties have taken advantage of the new crown epidemic to set off another wave of impact on mainstream politics in recent years, in the foreseeable future, the possibility of them taking control of major Western European powers is still slim.
A plausible view in looking at the Le Pen phenomenon (and the Trump phenomenon) is that the politics they represent embody a “force” aspect that is overlooked in Western politics today. This view actually pits “power” against civilization. In fact, the development history of the West and the whole world since modern times shows that the improvement of civilization is also the improvement of “power”, because a more civilized, warmer, more harmonious, and more mutual-aid social environment creates stronger creativity. Provided the soil, with greater creativity, society and the population will have more resources to meet various challenges, including military challenges from outside. In general, the populists represented by Le Pen have made the wrong diagnosis of social problems and proposed the wrong solutions. Although Macron’s victory is not a complete victory, there are regrets, but in general the French people still showed sound political literacy in this election, which also has enlightenment for people in other countries in the world to resist the temptation of extreme nationalism significance.
(Note: The author’s email address is [email protected])