2023-10-20 15:00:07
The review of magazines. “Repoliticize the question of the extreme right”, this is the ambition of the magazine Esprit in its October issue. Taking advantage of the context created by a supposed end of ideologies, this movement has become commonplace.
The shaky memory of the events which bloodied the 20th century and the new channels of expression offered by the Web have made things easier for him, note Anne-Lorraine Bujon, editorial director, and Michaël Fœssel, philosopher, in the introduction to the file “Naming the extreme right ” (Esprit, October 2023, 158 pages, 20 euros). To eliminate the vagueness that has set in, it is up to us to remain attentive to what this hardest right has never ceased to be.
Michaël Fœssel, who, in his work Recidivism. 1938 (PUF, 2021), already noted that we had not quite finished with authoritarian modernity, notes here that summoning memory to combat the far right is now discredited, and has been for twenty years.
Emmanuel Macron gave an example in May, by disavowing the remarks made by the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, who had recalled that the National Rally (RN) was “the heir party of Pétain”. The president then declared that “the fight against the extreme right no longer involves moral arguments”.
Inequality and violence
Certainly, concedes Michaël Fœssel, there could have been “abuse of memory in public debate”. More “the substance of this movement [le RN] is and remains the national preference, in other words the installation of an original inequality. Wherever inequality of this kind has been implemented, it has been imposed through violence.” Forgetting it or hiding it only spreads confusion.
Journalist at ReleaseNicolas Massol, who also contributes to the issue, underlines the extent to which the RN’s de-demonization strategy has installed ambiguity even within its ranks. “Impregnated with an ideology that they no longer have the right to embrace openly, RN activists today belong to a party without a real common culture. »
If certain traditions have been abandoned, such as the May 1 parade under the statue of Joan of Arc, the party remains faithful to its history. Members of the management continue to worship Dominique Venner (1935-2013), the father of the post-war far right, even if they are discreet on this subject.
Also read the analysis: Article reserved for our subscribers “French fractures”: still perceived as “extreme right”, the RN is considered increasingly credible
More generally, the party still recruits elements from various far-right organizations, such as the Union Defense Group (GUD). Anti-Semitism has not disappeared either. On a wall of the RN premises, there is still a formula from Jacques Doriot (1898-1945), collaborationist: “The party owes you nothing, you owe the party everything. » Internally, the RN therefore cultivates its own history. Why would we deprive ourselves of reminding the public of it?
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