Why is the far-right gaining momentum in France?

Why is the far-right gaining momentum in France?

exactly three weeks ago French president Emanuel macron called for surprise parliamentary elections in France a direct response to the success of right-wing candidates in the European Parliament election macron hoped French voters would reject the far right and so far that Hope Has backfired in the first round of Elections over the weekend the far-right national rally party earned the highest tally of votes a coalition of left-wing groups came in second macron’s Centrist Alliance finished third but there is more voting to come a second round takes place Sunday the vast number of seats in Parliament are still up for grabs and macron is calling on voters across the political Spectrum to prevent a farri majority in the second round let’s bring in Max Bergman he is the director of the Europe Russia and Eurasia program at the center for strategic and International Studies Max thanks for being with us um what do we mean in this case about when we’re just talking about France what do we mean when we say far right well so the the far right uh National rally party led by Marine Le Pen uh is is pretty similar I think in some ways to the modern US Republican Party in the sense that she is running on uh uh anti-immigration platform uh very much adheres to many of things you hear from Donald Trump in terms of economic protectionism uh revived nationalism so uh concern about Europe in this sense uh wants France to be uh more indep dependent of the European Union and skeptical of allies skeptical of NATO uh and and protectionist in the sense that believing in in higher tariffs in in opposing free trade in in many respects and opposing the trade agreements that the EU has done so the the national rally would um I think bring in potentially real change and what is most concerning I think to many people in France are particularly the the French citizens that are not of white background that are are from uh from Africa from other regions and and it there’s there’s no secret of of Mary Le Pen and National rallies sort of disdain for what what she sees as as sort of in some ways fake french citizens and wants to get rid of Birthright citizenship and other uh uh elements of what are really critical to the the French state or at least how France has perceived itself historically is it possible Max to know why um the the Leen and and that movement is gaining momentum in other words is it is it that racial piece is it just anti- macron sentiment is it just the general postco malaise that’s Bouncing Around The World Is there do we know it’s a great question I think it’s all of the above I think what you have to remember with Emanuel macron is that he essentially broke French politics when he won in 2017 that macron uh ran as a Centrist candidate created his own party and traditionally France was a party of really the center left and the center right and macron created a party of the center and when you do that in Democratic politics well opposition has to come from somewhere and where it came at least in the last French uh presidential elections in 2022 was from the far right and Marie Le Pen and from the far left uh and what we’re seeing is that Le Pen has gained ground that has sort of normalized her positions uh to some degree has softened on on some areas moved to the center a little bit but is really winning over actually many sort of far-left Voters uh former Communists for instance which were quite uh plentiful in France and and so the the problem is the center can’t hold and that’s what we saw with this election is that macron’s party finished third there wasn’t a strong base for it and so in some ways we’re seeing really the Revival of a two-party system the question is where does the center go does the center uh back the left or does it back the right and macron is trying to get the to back the left in in the the second round of voting and I think that should serve to at least blunt the gains of the far right and in the less than a minute we have left Max can you give us a sense of what we should read or connect to the rest of what’s happening in Europe in terms of the rise of the right or would you caution us against over reading the rise of the right and making Grand conclusions about the direction for Europe I would caution to some degree I think what we’re seeing is a real uh anti-incumbency reac action especially to leaders that have been in power for a long time uh and I think you’re going to see that also in the UK when they have elections on July 4th and that’s not going to usher in a right-wing government but a center left labor government is likely to return uh but then you take a country like Germany where the German Coalition is very unpopular uh so I think it’s a very mixed picture and the farite is clearly making gains but the Farid is also shifting and changing to adapt especially in Europe to move a bit more to the center maybe not fully but a bit more uh and and I think it it’s therefore hard to sort of draw Grand conclusions except for the fact I think people are generally annoyed postco and particularly with increase in cost of living in Europe from the energy crisis Max Bergman with the center for strategic and international studies thank you so much Max thanks

In early June, French President Emmanuel Macron called for surprise parliamentary elections in France as a direct response to the success of right-wing candidates in the European Parliament election. Macron hoped French voters would reject the far-right, but so far that hope has backfired. Max Bergmann, director of the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, joins CBS News to discuss what the first round of French elections says about the direction of the country, and the future of President Macron.

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