Ahead of the second round of the French general election on Sunday 7 July, John Mullen
explains how the left can work to block the fascists

The victory of the Rassemblement National in the first round of elections in France is a severe setback, and it is not impossible that France will soon have its first fascist government since the Nazi occupation: Jordan Bardella as prime minister. But the Left has also made real advances. This article outlines an anti-capitalist perspective on the deep political crisis in France.

In the first round of the elections, around 33 million people voted, while sixteen million stayed home. Ten and a half million voted for the far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally) and close allies. Almost nine million supported the left alliance, New Popular Front, in which the radical-left France Insoumise is the most influential component. Six point four million voted for Macron’s candidates, and three million for the traditional conservative Republicans.

There is plenty of defeatism around. At the same time, there has been more dynamic antifascist activity in the last three weeks that there had been in the previous three years, and this is the most energetic left election campaign seen for several decades.

Key questions

The most important question is not ‘How many disagreements do anti-capitalists have with this or that political force?’ We have to start with class interests and ask what is useful for working people.

Indubitably the ‘New Popular Front’ between the four left parties is useful to the working class, and it was very much pressure from below which made it happen. Because of the two-round voting system, the mere existence of the left alliance took a few dozen seats away from the fascists. In addition, the NPF programme has mobilised tens of thousands of activists for a real left alternative.

The programme, presented as 150 or so priority policies, includes pledges to increase the minimum wage by 14%, end homelessness, dismantle the most violent cop units, declare immediate recognition of the state of Palestine and an end to arms sales to Israel, to quote a tiny proportion of its clauses.

Of course, compromises were made. Leaving Nato is not mentioned, and the question of nuclear power is absent. This does not mean that the Greens or the FI have abandoned their policies on these questions. Each signing party may continue to defend its own priorities. 

The parties agreed to share out the constituencies and not stand against each other. This means we have nothing in common with some of the candidates. The Socialist Party chose François Hollande for one of its candidates, a social liberal ex-president. This was the price of an indispensable alliance.

At present, the fascists are far more powerful inside parliament than they are outside. Despite receiving up to thirteen million votes in some elections, the RN cannot organise mass street demonstrations. In most towns, they have little party structure. Getting over two hundred seats in parliament, which looks possible, could be a huge step forward for the RN, so, this week, the electoral battleground is the key one. In any case, it is ridiculous to say to newcomers, ‘Come join our antifascist movement on the streets. Incidentally, we don’t care if Jordan Bardella is Prime Minister next week or not’!

So those on the left who counterpose the electoral alliance with the streets are mistaken. The alliance has encouraged antifascist activity. Young people on demonstrations are chanting both ‘Siamo tutti antifacisti!’ and ‘Front populaire’, as well as ‘Free, Free Palestine!’

Also tremendously useful for working people is the broad antifascist activity which has been storming France this fortnight. Left parties, but also trade unions, women’s rights groups, charities, and pressure groups like Attac or Greenpeace are pulling out all the stops, leafletting railway stations, and contacting all their supporters. Eight hundred thousand demonstrated in over 200 towns in a trade-union initiative; women’s rights groups organised marches in dozens of towns. Every day there are rallies, called by youth organisations or by the radical press and so on. On 3 July, a huge outdoor concert in Paris heard from Nobel prize winning novelist Annie Ernaux and dozens of speakers. Appeals against the far right are surging from unexpected circles. Eight hundred classical musicians signed one appeal, 2500 scientists another, and there have been similar initiatives from social-science journals, university chancellors, rappers, and rock musicians. Star footballers, cyclists from the Tour de France and many more have added their voices. Academic societies, the Left press and the theatre festival in Avignon have organised appeals or events.

Although trade-union representatives often concentrate on the horrific economic policies of the far right, others on the Left have rightly prioritised antiracism. At his mass meeting in Montpellier ten days ago, Jean-Luc Mélenchon put antiracism, and specifically the fight against Islamophobia front and centre, and on primetime television, FI MP Clémence Guette, and others, have emphasised that racism is at the centre of RN ideology.

Mass involvement in antifascist activity of all kinds is one way of countering the 24-hour a day barrage of media propaganda about ‘left and right extremism’ and lies about the supposed violence and anti-Semitism of the radical left.

Inseparable 

The electoral campaign of the Left, and antifascist activity, are not generally separate. In one week, over 50 000 people registered as supporters of the France Insoumise, and tens of thousands asked to get involved in the campaigns. Dozens of buses are crisscrossing the country, bringing FI and other activists to help out in towns where the RN is strong. Mass door-to-door canvassing, not a traditional part of election campaigns here is France, is becoming commonplace.

More antifascist activity, the establishment of permanent networks for antifascist education and harassment, and a stronger France Insoumise are all necessary. The FI, despite the limits of its ‘citizens’ revolution perspective’, has loudly denounced genocide in Gaza, has brought the fight against Islamophobia into mainstream left politics (from where it had been shamefully absent for decades) and has succeeded in putting centre stage in political debate the importance of taxing the rich, of moving to 100% organic farming and 100% renewable energy. If the FI and in particular Mélenchon are attacked so viciously, it is because they represent an open-ended radical break with neoliberal business as usual. This is the reason for their very high scores in multiethnic working-class parts of town, and their ability to attract large numbers of new activists.

The second round

Macron, having spent years encouraging far-right ideas is now declaring that ‘Not one vote should go to the National Rally’, but some of his MPs refuse to call for a left vote in towns where only the left and the fascists are in the second round contest.

On the Left, too, what to do when the Left came third in a town in the first round is causing heated argument. Supporting Macron against Le Pen has been disastrous over the last seven years. On the other hand, it is possible to withdraw a left candidate without calling to support the right or centre candidate left in the race, and France Insoumise has generally limited itself to campaigning for ‘not a single vote for the RN!’

The results of the second round of the elections, Sunday 7 July, are impossible to predict. What those who abstained last week can be persuaded to do is crucial.

The most likely outcome is that there will be no overall majority, but no coalition will be easily constructed. Much of the right will refuse to govern with the RN. A disastrous ‘government of national unity’ including conservative Republicans, Macronists and some Socialists and Greens is being spoken of. Even a small section of the right wing of the France Insoumise might be tempted by this. Such a national unity government, abandoning radical reforms in favour of working people, is likely to prepare the way for a stronger RN government in a few years. 

But there may well not be enough support on the Left to make such a government happen. In any case, like every political configuration in this deep crisis, the New Popular Front is fragile.

If no stable government can be formed, extra-parliamentary struggle will be more important than ever. The building of a strong radical Left must continue, and Marxists must work inside it while keeping their own fraternal but fiercely independent voice.

John Mullen is a revolutionary socialist living in the Paris region, and a supporter of the France Insoumise.