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REDFLAG.ORG.AU PUBLICATION OF SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE 14 JUNE 2021 | REDFLAG

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Campaign posters
of candidates for
the En Marche!
movement of
Emmanuel Macron
and Marine Le Pen
with graffiti reading
"Neither banker, nor
fascist" in Rennes
2 May 2017 PHOTO:
Damien Meyer/AFP/
Getty Images

Macron’s political attacks haven’t stopped
Macron has long there. Anyone who attended a protest against construction on a mosque in Strasbourg was
stopped after the Turkish organisation building
Islamophobia was labelled an Islamo-leftist. it, Milli Gorus, refused to sign the “Charter of
recognised that his Higher Education Minister Frédérique Vidal went French Islam”, another pillar in Macron’s cam-
further, announcing a “probe” into the extent of paign against separatism. Darmanin launched a
main competitor is Islamo-leftism’s apparent grip on French univer- legal challenge to the mosque’s construction and
sities and academics. Darmanin professed to be against the Greens-led Strasbourg city council
Le Pen: instead of “shocked” at separate aisles for halal and kosher for financing an organisation that “supports
food in supermarkets, implying that separate political Islam”.
choosing to battle aisles breed separatism itself. Macron’s party even Paraphrasing Socialist Party head Olivier
banned a Muslim LREM candidate for wearing a Faure, Macron’s rampart against the far right is a
the far right by hijab in a local election campaign flyer. bridge. Macron takes votes on the left for granted
The national student union was the focus of and tries to undermine Le Pen’s growing base by
opposing its bigoted media ire for holding autonomous meetings of adopting classic far-right stances. Yet, evidently,
people of colour as hysteria about “anti-white
this has not dented Le Pen’s popularity. Even
positions on Islam racism” gripped the airwaves. Macron’s educa- young people are moving towards the far-right
tion department banned the use of gender-neu-
leader, with 30 percent of those aged 25 to 34 sup-
and immigration, tral language in schools—less a defence of the porting her, up from 23 percent in 2017.
French language’s integrity, more a dog whistle
Macron’s bridge not only welcomes Le Pen; it
Macron and his team to the far right, for whom any attempt to un- extends to a more generalised far-right backlash
growing in French society. A group of retired
dermine traditional gender norms is creeping
have championed “cultural Marxism”. generals penned an open letter decrying the
“disintegration” of France due to political Islam
While the French establishment has a long
commitment to Israel and routinely accuses that and immigrant “hordes” on the outskirts of
the far right’s country’s critics of anti-Semitism, the Macron cities. CNews, a right-wing network that critics
administration recently went further. Last month, label the French Fox News, has hit record ratings,
talking points and Darmanin made the extraordinary decision to and right-wing provocateurs such as Éric Zem-
pre-emptively ban Palestine solidarity protests mour are given a soapbox to denounce migrants
normalised its ideas. planned in Paris. The police arrested the head of and Muslims.
a France–Palestine solidarity organisation for his A reactionary march last month by police
role in organising a protest. officers against violence on the job was as much
Macron’s illiberal march culminated this year a reaction to last year’s Black Lives Matter move-
in the so-called law against separatism. The presi- ment and its spotlight on French police brutality
dent’s office says that the law, which comfortably as to the recent killing of a police officer. Statistics
passed both the National Assembly and Senate, is consistently show that support for the far right is
not about targeting Muslims but those “who in the higher within the police force, a fact that surely
name of a wrong or reconstructed vision of a reli- motivated Darmanin when he exalted the slain
gion behave in a way contrary to the republic”. Yet cop as a “hero in the war on drugs” and conferred
rarely does the word “separatism” leave Macron’s upon police the noble title of “soldiers”.
lips without the word “Islamist” accompanying it. Despite all of this, the logic of the republican
The law clearly scapegoats France’s Muslim front demands that the victims of Macron’s an-
population, with measures such as banning ti-left, anti-Muslim, anti-worker rampage should
“virginity certificates”—a humiliating gesture still vote for him in 2022—to keep out the far-right
that paints Muslims as misogynistic and illiberal. threat. Without underplaying the severity of
More worryingly, civil servants and even contrac- what a Le Pen victory would mean, for many of
tors working for the civil service are prohibited France’s oppressed, the illiberal society Macron is
under threat of fine or prison from expressing supposed to be protecting them from has already
any political or religious opinion—including the arrived under his leadership. If Le Pen wins, it will
wearing of religious garments like the hijab. not be despite Macron’s efforts—it will be because
The law also allows for the shutting down of Macron and his administration did everything
places of worship that “preach hate”. Recently, they could to prove they weren’t “soft”.