France’s far-right poses threat to French democracy following Paris attacks

Friday's terrorist attacks in Paris left the world in shock. In the heart of one of Europe's foremost cities, a living symbol of the aspirations of democracy and multicultural liberalism, concert-goers were taken hostage, Friday evening diners were gunned down and soccer fans were terrorized. The death toll now stands at over 130. Hundreds are wounded. Paris itself, it seems, remains at a standstill. 

While Parisians and their countrymen continue to grieve, they will also soon be faced with the grim political consequences of the attacks. What is likely to come next almost certainly bodes poorly not only for the French and for Europe, but for the United States, too.

France has three major political parties: the Parti Socialiste, currently in power and led by socialist President Francois Hollande; Les Républicains, formerly known as the Union for a Popular Movement and notably the party of former President Nicolas Sarkozy; and the upstart, far-right party, the Front National. Political power in France has changed hands between the socialists and the republicans, the left and center-right parties, respectively, since the birth of the Fifth Republic in 1958. This dynamic had remained unchallenged until 2002, when the Front National’s candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen, won enough votes in the first-round election to knock the socialist candidate out of contention and face the Republicans' candidate, Jacques Chirac, in a runoff. Chirac did beat Le Pen, receiving more than 80 percent of the vote, but French citizens, when casting their ballots, were more interested in voting against the Front National than voting for for Chirac himself. Nevertheless, what was once unthinkable had happened -- the French far-right had made it to the cusp of a major success.

In the years since, the Front National has made itself into a force to be reckoned with. The party is now led by Marine Le Pen, a woman whose vocal attacks on Islam and immigration pales in comparison only to the deeply anti-Semitic views of her father, the aforementioned Jean-Marie Le Pen. In the days after the attacks, Marine Le Pen has called for France to “ban Islamist organizations, close radical mosques and expel foreigners who preach hatred in our country as well as illegal migrants who have nothing to do here.” The recent migrant crisis in Europe has led to a disturbing growth of xenophobia in France, and the Front National has capitalized on these sentiments in an effort to expand its political reach. 

After the attacks organized by ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) but committed by a cell of French citizens and immigrants, the Front National can play off a level of fear perhaps only comparable to what followed the London metro bombings of 2005 or the Mumbai attacks in 2008. The Front National -- benefiting from the unpopularity of the current administration and the recent rise in anti-immigrant sentiment -- is poised to succeed in two regions in France’s regional elections next month. This party already saw modest-but-significant gains in departmental elections this past March. Marine Le Pen will stand for election in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie region, and her niece Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, another young gun in the party, is leading in some polls in Provence.

Paris has served as the cultural and often philosophical heart of both Western democracy and multicultural liberalism. But like the United States, France has failed to truly foster a genuine sense of inclusivity or embrace multiculturalism (the ban on headscarves in public schools is one such example). France is now a society in which disaffection and ancestry have become more defining and more important than loyalty to La République. Perhaps the only saving grace for France may be if the center-right party can draw enough votes away from the far-right to win the presidency in the 2017 elections. For the rest of Europe, which faces similar political woes, and for the United States in the age of Donald Trump and Ben Carson, our frighteningly ill-informed presidential candidates, a failure for multiculturalism in France would mean a loss of what is fundamental to the aspirations of democracy.