French Politics are STILL Bullshit
After the disastrous decision to ignore the mandate of the people and choose the homophobic and xenophobic Michel Barnier as the prime minister of France, the government is facing fiscal collapse.
To quote an Axios article,
This summer, France's then-finance minister warned about excessive spending plans proposed by the far right: "A debt crisis is possible in France." He said a "Liz Truss-style scenario" — a reference to the former British prime minister whose budget sparked financial turmoil — could play out.
The legislature overseeing this new government is split into several coalitions/voting blocs. The three largest ones are the New Popular Front, Ensemble, and the National Rally Group.
Lets examine what each of them stand for.
Nouveau Front Populaire
The New Popular Front (Nouveau Front Populaire) is the coalition that formed during this election between the four pillars of the French left: the left-wing populists (La France Insoumise and their allies); the ecological left (Les Écologistes and allies); the Social Democrats (Socialist Party and allies); and the Communists (French Communist Party and allies).
The New Popular Front's unified plan, to quote a Jacobin article,
includes an increase in the minimum wage, investments in public services, a repeal of Macron’s 2023 retirement reform, a restoration of taxes on the wealthiest fortunes, and a move toward ‘ecological planning.’
The biggest issue facing this National Assembly Coalition is disunity originating in the socialist flank.
The Socialist Party has a very spotty record in French Politics, especially in regards to colonialism.
According to an interview in Jacobin with Author Selim Nadi,
By 1920 the Socialist Party split between the minority who rejected the conditions of the Third International and the majority — who formed the French Section of the Communist International (SFIC), which later became the PCF — who accepted them.
Selim goes on to clarify,
One of the conditions of the Third International explicitly stated that the Communist Parties of imperialist countries should clearly oppose colonialism and imperialism of their own country.
This is not to say that other pillars don't have a fraught history either. The French Communist Party has historically struggled with nationalism as Selim points out:
With the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (1939), the PCF’s antifascism was abandoned for a time but the consequences, in the long run, of this Communist nationalism is that the PCF adopted the idea that the socialist transition would happen gradually through parliamentary reforms and that the interest of France as a nation became more and more important to a socialist program.
Ensemble pour la République
The Group Together for the Republic (Ensemble pour la République) represents the center to center-right of French Politics.
Ensemble contains several parties; Renaissance (Macron’s party), the Radical Party (Social Liberal), En Commun (Green Liberalism), Horizons (Conservative Liberalism), Parti écologiste, Caledonia Together (Center-Right anti-Independence Party), Centralist Alliance, and independent candidates to the right and left of center.
In Foreign Policy, Ensemble wants to pursue a more militarist position. To quote their website,
We will remain in NATO and we will maintain nuclear deterrence. These choices, which some of our opposition would like to call into question, guarantee the sovereignty of our nation”
They continue,
We will double the nation's military budget by 2030, in accordance with the military programming law, to face new threats and ensure respect for France and its unique voice in the concert of nations.
Ensemble is also committed to maintaining an interventionist and militant presence in the French colonies, most notably postponing elections in New Caledonia.
To quote the Associated Press,
As mainland France was embroiled in an unprecedent political crisis following July’s inconclusive vote and the Paris Olympics euphoria, it was France’s police and military troops that were largely dealing with the unrest and discontent in New Caledonia. They conducted raids and arrests of people authorities suspected of involvement in violence that included clashes, looting and arson. Thirteen people were killed and widespread damage was done to businesses, homes and public property amounting to 2.2 million euros.
In economics, Ensemble continues the trend of social liberalism by proposing technocratic government "fixes" that temporarily patch the excesses of capitalism through subsidies instead of supplanting the issues caused by the private sector.
Quoting from their website,
To help French people who work or study to find housing, we will create a rental guarantee to facilitate renting while reassuring landlords . It will be inspired by the Visale guarantee which already benefits a million young people.
They also state,
We will free up wage increases between the minimum wage and €2,000 by reforming business aid and the activity bonus. We will remove the threshold effects that discourage companies from increasing their employees' salaries so that the French get value for their work.
Rassemblement National
The Rassemblement National or the National Rally, led by Marie Le Pen, contains the far-right parties in France. Joining it's coalition this cycle are French Future (Far-right Gaullist Fascists) and Identity–Freedoms (Nationalistic Fascists).
National Rally advocates for harsher immigration policies, unconditional support for Israel, rampant islamophobia, and has close ties to Neo-Nazi movements in Europe.
National Rally represents a greater threat to liberal democracy than most think. They are the second largest national assembly group and they won the snap elections for the European Parliament, which shows the bastion of neoliberalism in Europe is faltering, but not in a positive direction.
Their policies represent a deep commitment to far-right xenophobic and pro-capitalist stances. According to a Research Brief in the House of Commons Library "France: recent political developments and the 2024 National Assembly elections" by Stefano Fella, they advocate for lowering Value-Added-Taxes on fuel, electricity, and oil to 5.5%, suspending VATs on “essential goods”, replacing Real Estate Wealth Taxes with a financial wealth tax, removing birth right citizenship, and increasing the defense budget by 25%.
The most telling indication about their position is their rigid commitment to fossil fuels, advocating for a nuclear energy plan, and gradually dismantling existing wind projects.
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