“Whoever wins on Sunday will need to secure the allegiance of French voters not just to themselves as president, but to a politics of negotiated compromise,” writes political scientist Catherine Fieschi in a guest essay
AS FRANCE NEARS the second round of its presidential election on April 24th, a sense of déjà vu is hanging over the country. Five years on from the last vote, Emmanuel Macron, the incumbent, is once again facing Marine Le Pen of the Rassemblement National party. In the first round, on April 14th, both of them slightly improved on their 2017 tallies: Ms Le Pen up to 23% from 21%, and Mr Macron up to 28% from 24%.
The first-round results suggest it is not just the far right that is flourishing. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a hard-left populist, scored a solid 22%, running Ms Le Pen a close third. His programme is as populist as Ms Le Pen’s in its rejection of elites, its promise of direct democracy through the routine use of referendums, and its pledge to distance France from the EU and NATO.
To signal that she is moving away from her far-right roots, Ms Le Pen changed the name of her party, from Front National . She shifted her focus from race and immigration to community and wages. Her party’s stance on Islam is now wrapped in a strong defence of Western values and secularism rather than the more blatant anti-Muslim propaganda that used to be the hallmark of the FN.
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