“Is France on the verge of a historic turn?”

A crowd of people surrounds Marine LePen on his tour of southern France. Two women, humble and older, come out to meet him. They don’t want to move. They defend their veils with raised arms: that they are French, that their parents bled for France, that they practice the religion of Mohammed, madam, we have a right to this. The veil does not kill. Le Pen hesitates, speechless.

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At the other end of the country, Emmanuel Macron intends to tear down the label with which his opponents have cataloged him: candidate of the rich, the man of banking and unstoppable globalization. He has therefore left Paris. But his strategy exposes him to all kinds of rudeness. First, a professor who angrily complains about the conditions in which the teaching profession finds itself; and, later, a health worker who speaks for his fired colleagues, Mr. President, the hospitals don’t give more, people die without beds.

The tension is rampant throughout the country. And it is that the results of the election have been revealing: more than 50% of the voters seem to share a historical disenchantment with the traditional parties (The Republicans, to the right; and the Socialist Party, to the left). One in two voters opted for the strongmen who promised to change everything (such as the leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon, or the rightists Eric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen). What are the lessons that this moment leaves us? The main one of all is, perhaps, the most discouraging: a country like France, which has always protected its minorities, and which has also been open to a migration that is difficult to assimilate, has not been able to contain the forces of nationalism, voices that They demand a different way, far from globalization and the market. And this, worth truths, does not take away the other: the preference of voters for those who offer everything for free, candidates like Melenchon who, despite the hard blow -humanitarian and economic- that the COVID-19 crisis has caused, seems demand even higher quotas of subsidies, refugees and migrants. If the economy allows it? If it is safe, even? Raising these questions is unpopular: those who raise them can be branded as fascists.

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A similar phenomenon is spreading dangerously around the world. The most disparate countries have seen the levels of political polarization grow to unsuspected limits. In Washington, in Madrid, in Paris, or even in Lima or Bogotá, the extremes only seem to move away, while the center suffers for values ​​that call no one. Well, what are moderation, good sense and prudence worth, if hatred, retaliation and revenge are popular?

France is a dangerous example of this madness. Not long ago, retired generals published a forum in which they announced the collapse of the country: the “Islamization” of society, in the words of these gentlemen, legitimized a military coup. Exclusive example of France? It doesn’t seem like The far right has flourished in other European armies, perhaps in reaction to the influx of refugees from the Middle East. The denunciations against the German regiments deployed by Angela Merkel in Lithuania (2021) are another example. The soldiers trained in the woods, prepared and enthusiastic, with one peculiarity: they sang hymns of the Reich by Adolf Hitler at the top of their lungs.

Although it is true that France, due to its colonial heritage, seems to have a different element. Muslims from North Africa fought Nazism inch by inch in World War II, and they are as French as anyone. This does not mean that, among their descendants, or perhaps among the refugees who arrived later, there have been pernicious elements that opted for radicalization. The result? Many lives lost. To mention just one: Samuel Paty’s (2020). A school teacher who was beheaded for having shown, as one of many examples, and in a class in which he developed the concept of the secularism of the State, caricatures of Muhammad.

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These contradictions that French society presents are, on the other hand, an element of the first order in the consideration of the geopolitical rivals of Paris. And that is a reading that cannot be left aside: the election between Macron and Le Pen is closely followed, in addition to Washington and Beijing, by kyiv and Moscow. France is the main military power of the European Union, and the only one of its members that has nuclear weapons. An eventual victory for Le Pen, therefore, would be devastating for Zelensky’s ambitions and, even more so, for the objectives of NATO and the EU in eastern Ukraine. The candidate’s statements leave no room for doubt: if she wins the election, she will resign from NATO’s joint command, and will indefinitely pause cooperation – at the level of military research – with Germany, the former partner of the past. A stimulating panorama if we take into account the interests of the Kremlin. Will this revolution prevail that, at all levels, Le Pen promises? The voters have the floor.

Source: Elcomercio

Deshawn