Outwardly, the French right has always shown itself to be the stubborn companionship of power. Inside, a general slashing and stabbing could prevail among competitors. Fissures worked along old fault lines between venerable Gaullists on the one hand and Alerten Cleverles, the classic opportunists, on the other. In the second group there were some who ideologically even came from the bourgeois-authoritarian movement of the Petainists. In the past, people weren’t squeamish when it came to reactionary politicians – think of presidents like George Pompidou or Jacques Chirac. Since Nicolas Sarkozy (head of state 2007 to 2012), however, ghosts have been called that have now spread in fat in the middle of the former Gaullist camp.
Sarkozy’s successor, François Hollande, had deeply disturbed the people who were initially devoted to him as well as in his Socialist Party (PS). The resulting implosion of the PS was followed by a no less fundamental crisis of the conservative Republicans (Les Républicains / LR) in 2017. The party exploded, and today’s utter fragmentation arose. François Fillon was sent into the running for the presidential election in spring 2017. An arch-Catholic conservative, weakened by embarrassing scandals, and ex-prime minister. As if conjured up out of nowhere, Emmanuel Macron appeared on stage. The economy and the media quickly trusted him to push through an irreversible neoliberal turnaround. His reaction force was small, but he credibly claimed to be able to reconcile left and right what was considered essential in a socially divided society. In the storms of globalization, Fillon, clearly labeled on the right, could no longer guarantee the usual existence of his bourgeois clientele.
After Emmanuel Macron had won the runoff election on May 7, 2017 with almost 75 percent against the far-right Marine Le Pen, many social democrats and conservatives threw themselves into the wake of the new power, which had hardly any domestic power and no political base of its own. Macron experienced cadres were more than welcome, which led to the fact that the old blocks continued to thin out to the right and left. From the pool on the right, he chose his two prime ministers, Édouard Philippe and Jean Castex. The remaining republican corpus split further: some established new undercurrents, some turned to the far right. Although they were entirely in agreement with the government’s market extremism, there remained a nebulous remnant that refused to give up its strictly Catholic-imbued conservatism of values. A conservative cultural resilience worked underground, resisting the social “excesses” of the Macron government. The miraculous increase in the 79,181 eligible voting members of the LR in 2017 to 148,862 members when the decision on the presidential candidate in late autumn 2021 was made can be attributed to this longing for a life free from same-sex marriage and other “improprieties”.
The regional and city princes, cut off from power and honor, were also frustrated. Another light dawned on them: If the people continue to vote in this way or not vote (the number of non-voters is very high in this country), then the right power of the house will continue to erode in the provinces as well. One would run the risk of completely losing one’s claim to power, which was once perceived as a natural right.
In the spirit of a Reconquista that allows us to return to old glory, we reorganized in the run-up to the 2022 elections. But under which banner can the conservatives still stand? Where is there room for one’s own politics? Macron is the most convincing neoliberal, Le Pen the most convincing reactionary placeholder, and the (currently still) media hype Éric Zemmour is also hysterical.
Immigration and security
So the decision was made in favor of the fatal strategy of outbidding each other in the reactionary and obsessively focusing on two issues: immigration and security, both of course always brought into a causal connection. Five right-wing presidential applicants first got out of the heated cauldron. In their TV debates it became clear that the insurmountable wall between right and right-wing extremists, which Chirac as the last conservative president had upheld with flying colors, had collapsed across the board. Paradoxically, all five candidates held up the old saint: Charles de Gaulle. But it should have been rotating for a long time in the darkness of its grave.
Under these circumstances, the LR members finally nominated their favorite for the highest office of the state. The outsider Philippe Juvin (57) quickly fell by the wayside. He had bet that as a doctor he could score points in the times of Covid. The former EU Commissioner and Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier (70), was considered a set for some time, as he looked back on a long career as a senator and multiple minister. His supposed seriousness could not cover up the lack of energy and bureaucratic boredom that he exudes. Especially since he now suddenly contradicted the positions he had strongly advocated in Brussels. The once iron primacy of European law over national law was now considered null and void, even concerning decisions of the European Court of Justice and the Court of Human Rights. He wanted to represent this – also at the risk of triggering further EU exits. Barnier’s competitor Xavier Bertrand (56) had meanwhile left the LR. After realizing that going it alone was a dead end, he returned ruefully. He is currently president of the industrially devastated region of the Far North and was considered the second favorite. He particularly acted as a “social Gaullist”. As a multiple Minister of Labor and Health, he cultivated the vision of justice from the right and the mantra of avoiding social unrest (the gods of the yellow vests!).
To everyone’s astonishment, others won the party’s internal decision. The only candidate, Valérie Pécresse (54), prevailed with 60 percent of the vote in front of Eric Ciotti (56), the MP from the rich Alpes-Maritimes department on the Côte d’Azur. Ciotti undoubtedly represents the very right wing of the party and without hesitation represents the most important markers of the right-wing extremists, such as the abandonment of the principle that all French-born people are French, a very sacred cow of the republic so far. He also wants the introduction of a national and European legal privilege in matters of job, social benefits and housing rights and even proposes the installation of a “French Guantanamo”. In the event that Macron and Zemmour should face each other in the second ballot, he would, according to Ciotti, choose the second who should be described as respectable.
Now the no longer venerable right-wing party is campaigning with Valérie Pécresse. She is regional president of the greater Paris area and was a minister under Sarkozy. She too rowed ruefully after a hasty exit from the party and the founding of the splinter party “Frei!”. Make no mistake: Pécresse is a hardcore neoliberal. She attributed “two thirds Merkel and one third Thatcher” to herself. She represents the so-called “double penalty” for foreigners, which provides for subsequent deportation after serving a sentence. She made the unbelievable suggestion that criminals from “difficult” city districts should generally be sentenced to harsher sentences, which would leave the rule of law unaffected.
Your victory in the primaries suggests that the “better” sections of Parisian society, who have always felt superior to the provincial conservatives, have won. It is unlikely that Pécresse will triumph in the presidential election. The result will be further damage to the LR and the danger of a real implosion of the classic right of France as well.
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