The election at the weekend of a new leader by members of France’s Les Républicains (LR) presented that party with an opportunity to recover from its present low standing and become a force again in national politics. The choice the members made, however, seems unlikely to achieve that result. Eric Ciotti was the most extreme of the three candidates on offer and has long campaigned on a hardline platform of “France for the French”, law and order and opposition to immigration and immigrants.
LR has a long tradition, as the party of de Gaulle and of presidents Pompidou, Chirac and Sarkozy. The 2017 presidential election, however, saw a major disruption of the long-established patterns of French politics, with the traditional tussle between centre-right and centre-left being replaced by a new opposition of far right and centre.
Over the past five years LR has seen its support eaten away by Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National, by the even more extreme Eric Zemmour, and by the defection of many prominent members to the Macron camp. The party has tended to respond to its existential crisis by tacking further to the right.
These disruptions are not just a French phenomenon. Across Europe, many traditional centre-right parties are in decline. In Sweden, a coalition of the right and centre-right is in government, but depends on the support of the far-right Sweden Democrats. In Italy, the once dominant Christian Democrats have long disappeared and the remnant of the liberal conservative tradition, Forza Italia, is in government with two much stronger far-right parties. In Spain, the mainstream right-wing People’s Party doesn’t seem to know whether to shun the far-right Vox or copy it.
RM Block
Politics in many parts of Europe is experiencing a major shake-up, in which the running is mostly being made by anti-establishment, populist parties of the far right. It is questionable however if opportunistically mimicking the aggressive postures of parties that are more extreme, ruthless and uninhibited than themselves can prove a winning formula for the centre-right.
