Terror & politics

Hollande’s response to the Nice massacre will please only the far right

Hollande’s credibility and authority have almost totally evaporated only 10 months before the next presidential election. He is not only the most unpopular president of the fifth republic, he is also loathed by many of his former supporters on the left. But the collapse in his support and the acts of terror of the past recent years have to be placed in a wider, more troubling context. The old party system is threatening to collapse imminently. The problems therefore run much deeper and are more serious than the fate of a lame-duck president.

During Hollande’s term in office,the political landscape has been profoundly transformed. His actions have had a negative impact on the left in general: the radical Left Front, a coalition of parties to the left of the Socialist party, is being sucked into the abyss together with the Socialists. Nicolas Sarkozy’s Les Républicains party is doing marginally better, but only because it has not been at the helm in the past few years.

There is one victor and a political force that goes from strength to strength, though: Marine Le Pen’s Front National. Although Le Pen mostly keeps quiet these days, her political future looks bright as all opinion polls predict that she will qualify for the second round of the forthcoming presidential election.