The Second Round

A reader reminds me that there is no "comeback" for the Front National, considering that last Sunday's results were worse for the FN than those of the 2004 regional elections. This may be true, but all the same, the FN made a surprisingly good showing. It is not a definitive victory, only a relative one, since what is bound to happen now is that the various parties of the Left will coalesce to fight both Sarkozy's people and the FN in this Sunday's run-off. OR, in some cases the PS could actually merge with the UMP to prevent any victory for the FN. That seems very unlikely, but it is not beyond consideration.

Marine Le Pen has made it clear that the Front National will not merge with any other party. Again, this is no surprise - I had assumed that the FN would remain autonomous. Hence there will be several "triangulaires" - three-way races, where the presence of the FN will simply mean a victory for the Socialists.

The websites are pretty much in agreement on the above points. They differ in their degree of triumphalism over Le Pen's success, and their degree of gloating over the failure of the smaller splinter groups such as Jacques Bompard's Ligue du Sud. But some bloggers feel that these smaller parties did not do that badly after all. Even if, for example, the overall score of Jacques Bompard, in the PACA region (Provence-Alpes-Côtes-d'Azur), was not high, he did extremely well in the city of Orange where he is mayor. Many of these lesser candidates have a strong backing in their own particular department or city, and these cities shape up to be centers of resistance to the Establishment "UMPS" doctrines.

It is to be hoped that this resistance will grow, and that some of the irreconcilable differences that have led to the fragmentation of the nationalist and sovereigntist Right will be ironed out.

There are so many articles, I am going to give just a few examples here.

An item posted at Yann Redekker's blog (that has a wealth of information about the Front National as well as dozens of other groups, organizations, and blogs that one could categorize as nationalist, sovereigntist, identitarian, Catholic, and monarchist), relays Marine Le Pen's plans for the second round:

(...) "There will be three-way races wherever the Front National is running. We will not sell ourselves to anybody, we are there to oppose the UMPS pact," she declared. She added that it is out of the question for the FN to join the UMP, "because the UMP has been associated with the Socialist Party for the past six years in the regions of France. They are guilty of being the accomplices in the policies that govern the regions."

According to another post, Jean-Marie Le Pen declared on Thursday (March 18) that the Front National would receive 25% of the votes in the PACA region. He was speaking before 500 sympathizers in Marignane.

In an appeal to those FN sympathizers who live in a region where the FN will not be on the ballot in the second round, Marine Le Pen urges abstention, rather than a vote for Sarkozy's UMP. She cites as one of her reasons the routine false promises of a tougher policy on crime that have emanated from Sarkozy's camp following the recent murder of a policeman. She says:

Since Prime Minister François Fillon proposes that the voters judge the UMP party by its acts, they will remember this: never have so many cars belonging to decent citizens been torched, never have the gangs had so much power, our flag is burned before our eyes in all impunity, Nicolas Sarkozy has made it impossible to expel foreigners who are criminals, armed assaults against merchants and taxi drivers have exploded, in short, that no one can say he is really safe in the France of Nicolas Sarkozy.

To vote for the UMP next Sunday in the regions where the FN is not running would be to give the government carte blanche to continue its glaringly lax policies. (...) Not one vote must be cast for the UMP slates.

However, economist Gérard Pince urges voters to abstain, period. An opponent of the FN because of Le Pen's style of leadership (to put it euphemistically), Pince favored those candidates of the smaller right-wing groups (particularly in Lorraine) that were eliminated last Sunday. He writes:

In the second round not one vote for the collaborators, the beneficiaries of stipends, or the corrupt. One order only: general abstention.

The majority of Frenchmen refused, last Sunday, to grant the oligarchy further enrichment. Let's amplify this rejection in the second round.

When the system collapses, the majority of Frenchmen will vote with pitchforks!

Yann Redekker reproaches Pince for his short-term memory, reminding him that those candidates from the smaller parties became known under the colors of the Front National. He expresses his surprise at seeing the Front National treated as "corrupt".

Pince is not the only one who commends the smaller right-wing parties.

Writing at Bernard Antony's website, Yann Baly notes that the smaller parties running under the slogan "No to Minarets", did not do that badly, considering their financial means, the absence of media coverage, and the absence of support from the larger parties. Among these candidates he cites Annick Martin of the MNR who received 3% of the votes. He also notes that one candidate of the FN - Thierry Gourlot - who received impressive results - has always been an outspoken adversary of the Islamization of Lorraine, contrary to certain pro-Islamic positions of Jean-Marie Le Pen. He adds:

The concern of our compatriots over Islamization was demonstrated in the voting booths. This is a good thing.

He also relates the story of a federation of 14 Turkish-speaking Muslim associations in the department of Meurthe-et-Moselle that discretely acquired a château in the little village of Neufmaisons. Since 2007, the château has been home to the Buhara Institute, the most important Koranic school of sufism in Europe.

What does the population think of this? The results last Sunday speak for themselves. In Neufmaisons alone, the total votes for the nationalist Right reached 28% (22% for the FN and 6% for the MNR).

Note: Isn't it terrible to think that a little French village is home to major Turkish organization that promotes Islam? What must the people think when they walk by the château? I'm only sorry that the other 72% of the voters were not courageous enough to vote for the nationalists. Of course, there were many abstentions.

Bernard Antony continues his critique of Jean-Marie Le Pen's doctrines and foresees dark days ahead for the regions. He begins by comparing the UMP and the Socialist Party:

On the essentials, that is, respect for life, freedom and human dignity, on the conception of the homeland and its civilization, nothing, when we weigh their actions, differentiates (the UMP) in any fundamental way from the socialist and ecologist Left, which is perhaps less hypocritical but probably even more determined to bring about a leveling of the "citizens", both economically and socially.

Meaning that we cannot expect any good policies for our provinces from the regional majorities who will be elected next Sunday. The Front National has certainly stopped its decline. We have to wait and see if that leads to a doctrinal reconstruction. It benefited from the extraordinary publicity surrounding the excellent poster (below) created by the young FN workers in the provinces, and from the freedom-killing lawsuit instigated by the collaboration of Algeria with LICRA.

This dictatorial denial of political freedom has placed Jean-Marie Le Pen back into the role (which he had unfortunately abandoned) of an opponent of Algerian imperialism in France and of Islamization which, it must be repeated, is more of an ideological, political and social phenomenon than a religious one. (...)

If the FN can recapture its respect for life and its refusal of the Islamization of France, that will be a very fortunate thing.


I'll let a reader of Le Salon Beige have the last word in this endless argument. She refers to the MPF (Mouvement pour la France), the party of Philippe de Villiers. Some may recall that Villiers shocked and disappointed his followers (but those who had always spoken of him as an impostor were not surprised), when he rejoined the UMP party, following his stinging defeat in the European Parliamentary elections. The reader points out that many of those who would have normally voted for Villiers (middle-class Catholics, conservatives) will vote for the FN on Sunday, simply because they now have to if they want to oppose the UMP! Philippe de Villiers did himself and his own constituents no good by joining Sarkozy - they now have to vote for the Front National. The reader concludes:

In 2012 the unity of the nationalist Right will make a comeback, as it did in 2002. Despite all the quarrels, the divergences, of Carl Lang, Jacques Bompard or even of Bernard Antony with regard to the FN, they will nonetheless support the FN, that appears evident... Exit then the PdF, exit the MNR, the NDP, the Populists, the DLR, the RIF, etc... This time there will be unity.

That remains to be seen. Within the context of the larger battle between the mighty "UMPS" and the nationalist/identitarian/sovereigntist resistance, there is another battle between the Front National and its dissidents. And then, within the Front National itself there is a fight for leadership between Bruno Gollnisch and Marine Le Pen, both currently labeled as "vice-president" of the party. When Jean-Marie Le Pen finally leaves (if he ever does!) who will lead the party?

Let's leave it at that and wait for Sunday's election. Below, a reminder of the catalyst in the success of the Front National last week - the minaret, the Swiss vote and the awakening to the dangers of the Islamization of France.