The unexpected defeat of the extreme right in France by three points

Its leaders denounced a “alliance of dishonor” between the left and the government to snatch victory from them in the legislative elections in FranceBut the far right also showed its lack of preparation, with controversial candidates and measures.

Alone against everyone

The far-right National Rally (RN) party appeared to be the big favourite to win the second round of the legislative elections, after achieving, together with its allies, a 33% of votes in the first and win the European elections with a 31.37%.

But the far-right bloc finished third, behind President Emmanuel Macron’s centre-right alliance and the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) coalition, which won the election by surprise.

Although the results represent the largest entry of far-right deputies into the National Assembly (lower house) since the end of World War II, with 143 of the 577 seats, the main reason for their defeat was theThe “republican front” against him.

The NFP and Macron’s alliance withdrew more than 200 candidates in the runoff to concentrate the vote on those “republicans” care more likely to defeat a far-right rival in each constituency.

The far right thus lost 90 of the 152 duels against an NFP candidate and 105 of the 128 against an official candidate, which for analysts demonstrates a greater mobilization of left-wing voters to stop the RN.

“Black Sheep”

But beyond the “republican front”, RN appears to have suffered from a lack of preparation. On the ground, dozens of candidates gave an image of incompetence, amateurism and unabashed racism.

A candidate denied that RN was racist by stating that it has “a Jewish eye doctor” and a “Muslim dentist”; another expressed his “doubts” on the anti-Semitic nature of the statements made by the historic leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was convicted in the 1980s; etc.

Social media was filled with clips from televised debates in which far-right candidates in each constituency were unable to explain their programme. Others did not even appear in public during the campaign.

“There is still an image problem and a lack of credibility,” explained far-right expert Jean-Yves Camus on Sunday evening on the Public Sénat channel.

RN evoked some “black sheep” whose cases she would examine, but Marine Le Pen also spoke of “bloopers” of “good people”playing with the image of the people against the elites.

“I say it clearly, in some constituencies, we did not choose the right candidates,” admitted RN president Jordan Bardella on Monday.

These controversies have hampered the normalisation strategy Marine Le Pen launched more than a decade ago to present a more moderate image of her party, far removed from that of her father Jean-Marie Le Pen’s period.

But they had no impact on their electorate, which is characterized by its “fidelity” to the party, according to Pierre Mathiot, a professor at Sciences Po Lille university.

Binational controversy

Beyond his lack of clarity on campaign issues, such as the repeal of Macron’s pension reform, the main controversy was the proposal to prohibit French people with dual nationality from accessing certain strategic positions, defended by Bardella.

His deputy Roger Chudeau, who was re-elected, went further, pointing out a “double loyalty” of binationals such as the Franco-Moroccan Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, who in his opinion should never have served as socialist Minister of National Education between 2014 and 2017.

Even Marine Le Pen declared herself “stupefied” for these statements.

Despite the setback in its rise to power, the party has made historic progress. “It went from 8 deputies in 2017 to 88 deputies in 2022 and now to more than 140,” along with his allies, Mathiot recalls. “The tide is coming in. This time it hasn’t come in high enough.”

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