Could This Be The End Of French Socialism?

Outsiders often think of France as a bastion of socialism. Strong unions, protection for workers, frequent strikes, a proper healthcare system.

And it is true about the healthcare equality. Although like in many European countries this is changing amid cutbacks and unwieldy waiting lists, the French healthcare system still makes its Irish counterpart look like the crumbling mess that it is.

It seems that even Jacques Chirac,  who founded the centre-right party, U.M.P. party Unione per un Movimento Popolare (U.M.P.) or Union for a Popular Movement, (renamed Les Républicains by Chirac’s successor Nicholas Sarkozy in 2015) was more left-leaning than some so-called socialist parties.

Chirac imposed the international solidarity levy, a fee on international financial transactions and airline tickets to raise money for development in Africa and to fight Aids. He also introduced an environmental charter into France’s constitution.

His opposition to the invasion of Iraq by the Bush/Blair coalition caused some hostility between Americans and the French, leading to a US politician’s suggestion of renaming one of its favourite fast foods “Freedom Fries”.

On economic policy commentators put Chirac to the left of then British prime minister Tony Blair, then leader of that country’s Labour Party.

Conservative trend

So what if France succumbs to the right-wing fever spreading across Europe?

According to the most recent opinion polls, Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Front is neck and neck with Emmanuel Macron, the globalist centrist candidate, who has the backing of some veterans of the Socialist Party.

 

Le Pen, who is running on a platform which is anti-immigration and anti-EU has praised US president Donald Trump’s ban on immigration from seven Muslim countries and has said that she would have voted for him.

The worrying thing is about a quarter of young voters (18 to 24) say they want her as president. She’s promising student housing, tax incentives for employers to hire young people.

Her popularity has surged in rural France where disaffected farmers have seen their livelihoods decimated under current Socialist president Francoise Hollande and his predecessor Nicholas Sarkozy.

Although not as a hardline as her father Jean-Marie, who founded Front National in the 1970s, she calls the EU “a plague” and urges patriots to take back France.

Still with about a third of French voters – or 14 million – saying they intend to hand in blank votes in protest at mainstream politics, there could be a surprise yet.

The French presidential election has two rounds; the two candidates with the most votes in the first round on April 23rd go forward for a second round in May.