Patriotism v. globalism
Marine Le Pen wasted no time in proclaiming 2017 as the year of far-right awakening in Europe.
“We are living through the end of one world, and the birth of another,” Ms. Le Pen, the leader of France’s National Front party, told a cheering gathering of members of European right-wing parties on Saturday in this Rhine River city to chart a joint path to success in elections in the Netherlands, France and Germany this year.
“In 2016, the Anglo-Saxon world woke up,” Ms. Le Pen said. “In 2017, I am sure that it will be the year of the Continental peoples rising up.”
The triumph of anti-Europeans in Britain and Donald J. Trump in the United States has galvanized the Continent’s far-right parties, who are making appeals to disillusioned voters already bitter over social inequality, loss of sovereignty and waves of migration. And, amid suspicions that Russia is trying to destabilize the Continent by allying with the right, Europe’s mainstream parties may be forced into awkward or ineffectual coalitions, to preserve their power and keep extremists out.
Patriotism v. globalism
In less than four months, France will have a new president, but will the president be a man or a woman? After Trump and Brexit there is a risk that the opinion polls will be wrong once again and that Marine Le Pen’s nationalist right wing will come close to winning. Even if the cataclysm is avoided this time, there is a real risk of her succeeding in appearing to be the only credible opponent to the liberal right for the next round. On the radical left, hopes are of course pinned on Jean-Luc Mélenchon but unfortunately he is not the most likely winner. These two candidates do have one point in common – they both challenge the European treaties and the present system of cut-throat competition between countries and territories, which does attract many of those who have been left behind by globalisation. They do, also, have fundamental differences – Mélenchon, despite divisive rhetorical outbursts and at times an alarming geo-political imagination, does nevertheless tend towards a progressive and internationalist approach.
