The French Far-Right Gains + Losses: Voting For “The Leopards Eating People’s Faces” Party / Alley Valkyrie

Social critic Alley Valkyrie returns to the podcast to provide analysis of the recent election in France. She discusses the French far-right's long-term efforts to remake their image and gather widespread support, in ways that are both surprising but contextually understandable, making tremendous gains in the first round of the parliamentary snap election called by President Emmanuel Macron.

Alley explains why this election was called in the first place, why Marine Le Pen's far-right party, rebranded as National Rally, made such extraordinary gains in the first round of the election. She elaborates on the impact Macronist neoliberal reforms have had on the French population, and how the far-right has taken advantage of those trends and has harnessed the tools available to them to appeal to larger swaths of the populace, even to those who would be most detrimentally affected by their policies if they were elected into power.

This interview was recorded on July 4th, before the second round of voting on Sunday, July 7th, which resulted in a left-wing coalition with Macron's centrist party far outpacing the National Rally in the election. While this interview was recorded before the final results came in, the analysis Alley brings to this discussion is deeply relevant to understanding the nuances of French and European political trends, especially for those who mainly consume information from Anglophone media.

France, very notably, and Europe as a whole overall, staved that off, and one reason they staved that off was the older generation remembering full well and knowing exactly what fascism tastes like, smells like, looks like, and now you have a situation where those who remember that are mostly gone. It’s an interesting comparison to the United States: Trump voters tend to be older when you look at the demographics; younger people vote Democrat, older people vote Republican. Here, it's kind of the opposite. 

The reason Macron won in 2022 was because the older folks went out to vote in record numbers against Le Pen. They remembered—the oldest ones of them grew up during the occupation, or they grew up with parents who lived through it and or uncles and aunts who did. That’s a lived reality here, whereas for the 25-year-old following Jordan Bardella on TikTok, that has been mostly forgotten, and I really think that's it. We have hit the point where the vast majority of those who lived through those times are gone now. Those memories are no longer living.

Bio:

Alley Valkyrie is a writer, social critic, and a textile artist. She is the author of Of Monsters and Miso, “a bilingual book of delicious miso sauce recipes,” and co-founder of Gods & Radicals Press.

Episode Notes:

The song featured is “64” by Nick Vander from the album Relatives, used with permission by the artist.