france

Introduction Central to the French political context is the upcoming presidential election of April 2022, after five years of a government headed by President Emmanuel Macron. December 2021’s electoral polls announced that around 32% of the voters intend to put a ballot for one of the main far-right candidates (M. Le Pen 16%, E. Zemmour …

Reports

September 2022

National scene September was marked by the “summer universtities” of the two main French far-right parties. First, Reconquête, Eric Zemmour’s party, held a weekend gathering between September 8-11th, aimed at fostering member’s involvement and cohesion through convivial activities, workshops and talks from executives from the party. On a similar model, Rassemblement National held its summer …

August 2022

National scene Summertime is always an occasion for far-right groups to gather their members for a summer camp or “university”. Academia Christiana, the fascist identitarian-catholic youth organisation, held its yearly summer gathering on August 22nd-27th. They claim that 250 participants attended the event. The days were structured around conferences, sports, artistic and journalistic activities and community building …

June 2022

Electoral scene On Jun 12th and 19th, legislative elections took place in France to elect the MPs to the National Parliament. To general surprise, even the one of Rassemblement National (RN) itself, RN candidates obtained 89 seats (out of 577). In 2017, the RN only obtained 8 seats, being therefore unable to form a group (15 …

May 2022

National developments In the aftermath of the presidential elections, parliamentary elections will take place in June. Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (Debout la France) and Florian Philippot (Les Pratriotes), two Frexiters who have surfed the anti-vax wave, will maintain their alliance for the upcoming ballot, among other candidates who are bringing brown-tainted covid-conspiracies to the electoral arena (on the close …

April 2022

National developments On April 10th and 24th, the presidential elections took place. At the first round, the podium was held by E. Macron (27,85%), M. Le Pen (23,15%) closely followed by left-wing candidate J-L. Mélenchon (21,95%). Just like in 2017, the duo Macron – Le Pen was competing in the second round, leading to the renewed victory of …

March 2022

Key developments On March 6, Marion Maréchal (ex-Le Pen), niece of Marine Le Pen and grand daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen has officially rallied Éric Zemmour and his campaign – and was therefore the star of his campaign event in Toulon that day. Despite a clear betrayal of her aunt, her closeness with the identitarian …

February 2022

Key developments On the parliamentary scene, the race for the presidential elections (10th and 24th of April) continues, just as the fluctuations in the polls that go with it. Florian Philippot, leader of Les Patriotes and a front personality of the anti-covid pass movement is no longer a candidate. Nor is François Asselineau (Union Populaire Républicaine, UPR) …

January 2022

Key developments In January 2022, Eric Zemmour’s popularity seems to have lost its momentum and rather decreases, as he now ranks 4th according to the latest polls for the upcoming presidential elections in April this year. Nevertheless, this month has seen several personalities leaving their respective parties to join Zemmour’s ranks, including the second-highest executive of …

December 2021

Key developments On December 5th, Eric Zemmour held his first political meeting to kick off his campaign in Paris, in front of 13 000 participants, including politicians and identitarian figures officially displaying their support to the new candidate. At the event, anti-racist activists were violently attacked as they conducted a peaceful action (i.e. shouting “no to racism!” wearing t-shirts with this …

November 2021

Key developments On November 2, StreetPress revealed that supporters of Eric Zemmour practiced shooting on racist caricature targets (a black man, a Muslim, a Jew). On November 5, as a response to StreetPress’ article, a far-right Telegram channel published a photomontage with pictures or caricatures of left-wing journalists and politicians (among others), with a red target on their forehead. …

October 2021

Key developments On October 2nd a 19-year-old was arrested as he had planned to commit terrorist attacks on two mosques and his former high school, on April 20, 2022, Hitler’s birthday. This article on Mediapart gives more context on the accelerationist doctrine behind such deadly projects (the aim being to trigger a racial civil war, thought as inevitable, …