The political argument in the run up to France’s 2017 presidential election has swung dangerously to the right as the mainstream parties have been forced to pander to the racist agenda of Marine Le Pen’s National Front. An indicator of how far things have gone is the way the former president Nicolas Sarkozy has occupied the political territory normally held by the National Front’s in his efforts to gain popularity over his rival Alain Juppe, as they prepare for the centre-right primaries on November 20 and 27.
During the campaign and in the recent national TV debates, Sarkozy has advocated increasingly racist and anti-Muslim positions. He has spoken repeatedly of the need for France to stop any further immigration and close its borders. He now supports locking up anyone suspected of having jihadist sympathies and he has spoken repeatedly of how Muslims must assimilate to French culture. In addition he is careful to show himself as an opponent of the European Union’s Brussels bureaucracy so that he can tap into the wave of anti-European sentiment, and he wants to end the deal with Britain that allows the UK to have its border controls on the French side of the English Channel.
The depth of Sarkozy’s move to the right was illustrated up by the crusty old founder of the National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen who is the father of the current party leader Marine, who described Sarkozy as his real political heir, and criticised his daughter for having become much too “centrist”. Sarkozy beat the father in 2007 to gain the presidency, and he may well face the daughter in 2017.
