What just happened in France offers important lessons for all those who are understandably terrified about the rise of right populism. The rise of the far-right Rassemblement National, and their vicious anti-immigrant program, posed a major threat as the second round of elections to the National Assembly approached in France this summer. Would this be the moment where the RN broke through, after steadily gaining ground over years of pro-capitalist, centrist political regimes?
However, the results of the second round were a triumph not for the far right, but for the left, organized into the Nouveau Front Populaire (New Popular Front, NFP), a coalition of four parties. By breaking with Macron’s centrist policies and offering a real alternative for working-class and young people, these parties massively increased voter turnout. The far right was defeated at the ballot box and relegated to a third place finish, with the new left coalition finishing with the most seats.
This result came as a huge relief to a whole section of French society who are horrified by the racist and generally reactionary views of the far right. However, the way forward for French working people and youth is not fully clear, and the fight against the far right is far from over.
The RN campaigned for the European elections earlier this year on a program of economic populism, including a promise to return the retirement age to 62. Despite 18 months of strikes and protests in 2022, Macron achieved his goal of increasing the retirement age to 64, but was forced to do it by presidential decree. As the RN edged closer to holding power when it looked like they might win the most seats in the Assembly, parliamentary leader Jordan Bardella reneged on the retirement promise, reassuring the capitalist class that the RN doesn’t have real intentions of leading pro-worker reforms.
The government is essentially frozen, with the prime minister from Macron’s party held over as a caretaker. After 16 days of intense negotiations, the NFP agreed to their own candidate for prime minister, a little-known civil servant and activist, Lucie Castets. Macron immediately rejected Castets, and is insisting that a candidate can be found that appeals to a majority of the Assembly, despite the fact that the Assembly is split three ways. This shows how when politicians like Macron call for “unity”, what they really mean is for working class people to drop their ambitions and demands for the “greater good” of preserving a functional government for capitalism.
Castets is reportedly using the political “Olympic Truce” declared by Macron to tour the country and build support for her candidacy. In an interview on July 28, she said that she would be prepared to compromise with any political party other than the right-wing RN. Meanwhile, Macron’s aides are shopping a plan for a consensus-based government that would appeal to the left and the right. Castets and the NFP are in danger of making the same error as the Macron plan for a consensus government – moving toward a political center which is rapidly crumbling.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise (France Unbowed, LFI) is the most dynamic and left wing party in the NFP, and will continue to be under pressure from within the NFP to moderate its more radical demands. LFI is subjected to a campaign of attacks and slander by the mainstream media and political establishment because the capitalist class is completely opposed to LFI’s key demands: raise the minimum wage, repeal Macron’s hated retirement reform, and raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy.
By contrast, the answer offered by the RN, racist scapegoating of immigrants, is not only divisive and hateful, but it doesn’t solve the problem of the sinking quality of life that the right wing says it does. This is why it’s essential for the left not to drop its pro-working class program, even if it brings down Marcron’s “unity” government. Working class and young people, not liberal capitalists, are the only force that can beat back the far right once and for all.
The capitalists are not afraid to fight for their profits no matter what. The French government is under pressure to reduce its debt, which is among the highest in the EU, and it will cut services regardless of the skin color or birth country of the people who use those services.
Ultimately, capitalism is in crisis all across the globe, unable to make the same level of profits it once did. All political parties will come under pressure from financial markets and the capitalist class of their countries to make cuts to the things working people need, in order to make capitalism in that country more “competitive”. Only a party and politicians that are truly politically independent from the demands of the capitalists and based on the power of the working class can successfully resist this pressure in the long term.
Macron is very unlikely to accept Castets as the new prime minister. Enormous pressure will mount on the NFP from financial markets to accept a compromise government, particularly because the French constitution prohibits another election for at least 12 months. Macron will likely seek to split the Socialist Party and Greens away from LFI and assemble a capitalist coalition over the heads of French voters with a bare majority.
This kind of centrist government, which implemented policies demanded by capitalist markets would have no popular mandate, would attack the working class and would actually be a driver of votes to the far right as the next presidential election approaches in 2027. An electoral alliance and parliamentary maneuvers won’t defeat the far right. In order to build on the momentum of the stunning victory of the NFP, the LFI needs to join with the unions and build a movement in the workplaces, communities, school and streets to oppose the disastrous capitalist system and stand for the building of a socialist alternative. Such a mass movement, sustained through democratic organizations of struggle, is the only way to defeat the far right.
LFI doesn’t represent a democratically run, bottom-up party, and is instead led by a figurehead, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, just as some capitalist parties are. To build the movement the French working class needs in this situation, LFI should launch a mass party of struggle equipped with an uncompromising program for socialist change which can win unity in action for workers, farmers, migrants and young people.