THE RISING POPULIST RADICAL RIGHT IN THE EU: EUROZONE AND MIGRATION CRISES IN MARINE LE PEN'S DISCOURSES IN THE 2017 FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGNS
MİNE KOÇOĞLU
YEDITEPE UNIVERSITY
POLITICAL SCIENCE AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
PSIR332 EUROPEAN UNION
I- INTRODUCTION
This paper aims to analyze the dynamics of rising populist radical right ideology under consideration of Marine Le Pen's performance in the 2017 presidential election in France. The significant success of her party National Front- Front National (FN)[1] will be investigated in order to give a different insight to the European Union's (EU) migration crisis and Eurozone crisis by attaching those with the dynamics of the populist radical right in a concrete sample from an unexpected member state, France. This country is the homeland of democracy and bureaucratization also one of the prominent marchers of European integration. Due to its discriminative and destructionist facets, populist radical right deepens the migration crisis by spreading hatred to the people more. In the meantime, approaching the Euro as a destructive tool of globalization and the EU's supranational potency onto France as Le Pen did will eventually cost the EU an integration seeker France by taking the Eurozone crisis into consideration.
The questions that this research seeks to answer are:
What are the factors that make radical right parties electable?[author1]
What reforms the populist radical right adopts in order to be more visible and influential?[MK2]
The analysis aims to explore the relevance of the rising populist radical right with the aforementioned EU crises. This study puts forward the following argument: Marine Le Pen adapted the strategy of flexibility, adapting the current conditions decently in the 2017 presidential elections. She evolved the party into more moderate structure and took attention of wider groups. This confidence made her bold on the propositions especially the one about Eurozone which both fuels and caused from Eurozone crisis of the EU[MK3] .[author4]
The analysis is based on Marine Le Pen's discourses as a presidential candidate in the 2017 election campaign to uncover the actual radical right populist trends. There are also supportive data from the EU official website on France's election results and general features.
This paper is composed of six sections. The first section is an introduction in which general information on the paper is revealed. The second section introduces the theoretical framework and clarifies the key concepts that are adopted in the study. The third section relates the concepts to the EU context. The fourth section provides an account of the case of Marine Le Pen and her electoral success. The fifth section of the paper analyzes the EU-related issues in Marine Le Pen's discourses during the 2017 election campaign. Finally, a conclusion is drawn that wraps up the paper's main argument and finalizes with the discussion.
II- POPULIST RADICAL RIGHT PARTIES
In order to define the concept of populist radical right party, primarily the elements of the concept need to be explained. The term 'populism' is considered a thin-centered ideology that understands society divided into two homogenous and opposing groups, "the pure people" versus "the corrupt elite". It is necessary to protect the general will of the people, and this is the general aim of politics (Mudde, 2004, p. 543).
Populists call these naive people, the citizens of their so-called glorious country, that the corrupt political elites favor the very business owners by the guardians of the current system and harm their citizens. The term radicalism also refers to anti-systemic features. Radical term in this study is used to specify opposition to some basic features of liberal democracy, namely; political pluralism and the constitutional protection of minorities (Mudde, 2007, p. 25).
Therefore, populist radical right takes a stand that moves away from liberalization and creates a national system in which state should intervene if needed. The welfare state should be ensured, and it is expected to take care of its people, who are the parts of the related nationality. Kitschelt and McGann identified the populist radical right parties based on anti-establishment populism, authoritarian capitalism, and welfare chauvinism as vote-winning characteristics. Emphasizing social and welfare measures has always benefited populist radical right parties because they are issues where common desire and pleasure are difficult to find. They are using social policy to put pressure on mainstream parties, and one way or another, it works (Ketola & Nordensvard, 2018).
III- INFLUENCE OF POPULIST RADICAL RIGHT IN THE EU
As recent election results show, populist radical right parties have risen to prominence in several EU member states, including Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Austria, France, Poland, Greece, and Hungary. Those countries are all home to populist extreme right parties that have won elections in the past using anti-immigrant discourse based on narrow-nationalist notions (Ketola & Nordensvard, 2018).
Besides the member states themselves, there is an enormous rise of populist radical right ideologies in the European Parliament. It is observed that political rights gain power day after day in Europe. The supporters of this idea have organized as a political group in the European Parliament before the 2019 parliamentary elections. Far-right had a march in the EU, especially with the migration crises, and they have a noticeable effect on the policies because they are the fifth largest group in the European Parliament in their first term (Identity and Democracy, 2021). By inquiring the previous election results, although the ID group launched in 2019 taking the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy Group (EFDD) in 2014 and Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group (EFD) in 2009 as a right-wing antecedent of the ID, it is observable that the right-wing support has risen in the EU. The results of the last three European Parliament elections: EFD in 2009 4.35 % of the seats corresponds 32 seats, EFDD in 2014 6.39 % of the seats corresponds 48 seats, and ID in 2019 9.72 % of the seats corresponds 73 seats in the European Parliament (European Parliament, 2019).
The influence of the ID group cannot be underestimated whether they do not rank near the top ideological groups. Their vote and attitudes matter because they have the potential to challenge and question the EU in the first place. The EU should pay attention to what they say themselves with the help of pluralist characteristics of itself to avoid wider problems in the future by the rising populist radical right ideology. Also, another potential risk is that the existing EU crisis can be attached to migration and the euro crisis and can be mutually reinforced each. European Parliament is a good place to see the obligations on everything in respect to the most practical democracy promoter of the EU. It seems quite optimistic and promising when it is looked at the issue from this perspective, but there are vital challenges that originated from far-right thinking besides the ID, which is a democratic part of the EU.
Especially with the refugee crises of Europe, far-right parties started to gain power very fast. The flee of predominantly Muslim Syrian refugee groups also negatively affected European states, and Islamophobia has risen quickly. For instance, Marine Le Pen has suggested a proposal to ban Muslim headscarves in all public places (NEWS WIRES, 2021). Such discriminatory attitudes in an organization that tries to be democratic are quite questionable. Radical Rights, who think that the EU is the cause of this immigrant problem, are considering leaving the Schengen area by blaming the EU. Moreover, they see the EU as a threat to their national sovereignty (Polyakova and Shekhovtsov, 2016). With the combination of mistrusts caused by the euro crisis and the migration crisis in the light of a belief that spread of terrorism with migrants, the problem became even more unresolvable.
IV- THE ELECTORAL PERFORMANCE OF MARINE LE PEN AS THE REPRESENTATIVE OF POPULIST RADICAL RIGHT
As host of visible success of populist radical right party in popular elections France which is one of the most ascendant members of the European integration and marcher of democracy should be studied. For the sake of using concepts appropriately, RN (initially FN) is stated as a populist radical right party in the light of Mudde's framework (Mudde, 2007). As France promotes European integration and attaches great importance to being the protector of democracy, under normal circumstances, a populist radical right-wing candidate with extremist features from France would not be expected to advance the second round of the presidential election.
France is considered a consolidated democracy with solid institutions that can resist populist assaults thanks to the vigorous constitutional culture. Despite such exemplary features of France, it was not adequately equipped to counteract populism in action (Fournier, 2019). At the end of the day, Marine Le Pen went through until the run-off in presidential elections. Even after that, Le Pen's influence is seen more like a very strengthened opposition party with the crises Macron needed to face in his presidential tenure. In this and the upcoming sections of the paper, the probability of being elected for Marine Le Pen, which seemed possible, will be analyzed.
Buraya 2017 presidential electionlar üzerine 250-300 sözcüklük bir açıklama gerekiyor. Ne zaman oldu, kimler katıldı, onlar siyasi spektrumda nerede, FN bunların arasında nereye oturuyor, sonuçta seçimde kim ne kadar oy aldı, Le Pen kaybetti ama neden yine de sence incelemeye değer? Böyle bir paragraph ekle.
The electoral contest in 2017 became a renewal of the French politics because both in the primaries and the actual election power balances were being destroyed. It was the first time in the history of the fifth republic that the existing president (François Hollande) announced that he will not seek another term. François Hollande was a former secretary of the Socialist Party which was immensely active party in French politics but his receding from the upcoming elections proved the mainstream parties' regression of the prominence. Figures who had dominated the political scene for years Hollande, Sarkozy, Juppé, Fillon effectively lost their frontline role at the national level (Kuhn, 2017, p. 373).
Marine Le Pen's bewildering performance as an anti-system, rightist candidate should be investigated because the left has always been an influential figure in French politics but the candidate whose ideology is based on the populist radical right hit the second round.
In the first round of 2017 French presidential elections, favourite candidates all described themselves as anti-system representatives to some extent. Four candidates were seen the marchers of the rally: pro-European liberal progressivist Emanuel Macron from En Marche; Europhobic anti-liberal populist Marine Le Pen from Front National; economically liberal social conservationist François FILLON from The Republicans; and Eurosceptic statist progressivist Jean-Luc Mélenchon from La France Insoumise.
These are the ratings of the candidates after the first round:
Emmanuel MACRON 24.01%
Marine LE PEN 21.30%
François FILLON 20.01%
Jean-Luc MELENCHON 19.58%
Benoît HAMON 6.36%
The second round has terminated with Macron’s clear victory with the 66.10% of the votes while Marine LE PEN got 33.90%. Even she couldn’t be elected as a president from that election on her influence became undisputed.[MK5]
In order to comprehend the electability of Marine Le Pen as a far-right candidate in France, which is a founding member of a liberal political and economic union's, both her election campaign and her party FN's evolution in time, especially with her being the president of the party after her father will be put under the scope.
IV.I ELECTION CAMPAIGNS OF MARINE LE PEN ON THE EU RELATED AREAS
Whether the fact of sliding on the line of radicalization of the party its main features are still. Anti-immigrant, nationalist and the anti-EU stance of the party has never abandoned but the volume has changed. Marine Le Pen took over a party from his father which is considered as has xenophobic, islamophobic, racist characteristics. She denounced these notions and her father who is feeding these concepts and proclaimed that they are not serving the vision of the party. She evolved party as a protector of the French nation by gracing them not by insulting the other nations necessarily. She used racist wordings while addressing the terrorists but the overall tone is softer than her father's[MK6] . Marine Le Pen has transformed the FN into a more moderate and more minor discriminative party.[author7] She made many policy changes and adapted the party to increase the party's electability. When Jean-Marie Le Pen was the president of FN, the party's stance was quite extremist because of his sayings' boldness and discriminatory elements. He was denying xenophobia and accusing all Muslims of being terrorists. Marine Le Pen, thinking that his father damaged the party's reputation, initiated disciplinary action against his father and expelled him (The Connection, 2015). Marine Le Pen pursued more moderate and embracing policies. For example, her father chose to pose with relatively large and frightening dogs, such as the Doberman, while she chose to pose with cute kittens. She highlighted this shift with phrases such as "defense of identity as a people" or "national priority" (Fournier, 2019). She made these defenses under the mask of populism.
Le Pen starts her manifest on the presidential election by saying: "The objective of this project is, first of all, to give back its freedom to France and the voice to the people." (rassemblementnational, 2017). Unlike her rival Emanuel Macron, who wholeheartedly supports globalization, Marine Le Pen was calling for making France a more introverted country by emphasizing nationalism. She constantly questioned the outside world for damaging France during the election campaigns. She even accused the European Union and the other members of the union by blaming the Eurozone for the high level of France's unemployment rate and economic problems in their live debate before the run-off polls (C-Span, 2017). In order to feed her nationalist campaign, she used economic growth and identity politics simultaneously, as it is a typical behavior of populist parties that combine these two aspects and reinforce the image of being the savior of the country (Öniş & Kutlay, 2020).
As a revisionist candidate, she announced 144 measures that mostly contain renewals (rassemblementnational, 2017). She proposed a bunch of radical policies in regards to the European Union in those measures too. First of all, under the coverage of strengthening economy- She implies French people and small businesses here-, she proposed to quit the Euro and turn back to using the French Franc. Secondly, she proposed leaving the Schengen area to avoid getting employees from the other countries of the EU while French citizens are suffering from high unemployment rates. Leaving the Schengen area will also be important for counterterrorism and migration crises. She once again emphasizes the drawbacks of the EU by implying that immigrants that are damaging the serenity of France are freely wandering all around France because of the very loose mobility in the European Union.
Moreover, these free and potentially harmful people can be terrorists, which cannot be excepted. Marine Le Pen suggests that after the negotiations on leaving the Euro if the people of France want so the referendum can be held on leaving the EU. It can be understood from this suggestion that she clearly expressed that she did not hesitate to leave the EU.
IV.I.I ECONOMIC POLICIES (EUROZONE)
One of the most striking propositions of Marine Le Pen is that the leaving out of the Eurozone. From Mrs. According to Le Pen's point of view, since she sees herself as the representative of the people of France rather than the elites, she claims that: 'The euro is the currency of the bankers not the currency of people!'. These are the words she said in a lively discussion with Emanuel Macron shortly before the 2017 run-off presidential election. Since she vows to protect the masses, the people from the wearisome effects of globalization, unfair competitiveness to actualize this aim, she believed that leaving the Euro will help the situation, and it is achievable by negotiating with the EU.
This transition will begin primarily for the citizens and small businesses, which was Marine Le Pen's primary concern because she claimed large corporations served only themselves and the ruling elite. On the other hand, she argued that small businesses contributed more to the French economy, promising to create job opportunities, especially for the French.
It seems reasonable for Marine Le Pen to leave the Eurozone and start using the French Franc again, especially considering the Eurozone crisis; the rigidity of the Euro does not seem to put France in action. She argues that the French Franc will gain value, and this benefits France. She advocates that they need to quit the Euro because above all Euro is one of the leading causes of unemployment across Europe. This currency is utterly maladapted to European countries' economies. From the point of Marine Le Pen's view as a far-right ideology representative, Euro is crushing France, and they need to get rid of it either by negotiating with all of the members of the EU properly or holding a national referendum just like the UK did (Le Pen, 2016).
However, leaving the Eurozone would not serve for achieving her propositions indeed. Judging by Ms. Le Pen's words, leaving the Euro while always emphasizing the public and considering their well-being will not serve the desired result: raised living standards of France's citizens. When one considers the offerings of the Euro, it is seen that it serves for stability. Stability gives people moving space to act confidently. For instance, when the 1970s and 1980s were taken into account, many European countries dealt with a very high level of inflation rates, reaching 20 % or more in some cases. With the stabilization of the currency, introduction to Euro, these rates have fallen on the benefit of these countries (European Commission, 2014). Further, leaving the Eurozone does not seem realistic statements for France. As a foremost supporter of European integration, France cannot easily quit the Eurozone and eventually the EU while its exports (59%) and imports (69%) compose of intra-EU transitions (European Union, 2020).
IV.I.II POLICIES ON FIGHTING WITH TERRORISM
Marine Le Pen draws the lines of fighting with terrorism very narrowly. In order to clear France from any terrorist actions, Le Pen proposes firstly that leaving Schengen area, which gives many people freedom of mobilization all around Europe. According to her, if borders are closed to anyone with even the slightest ties to Islamist terrorist organizations, it will be easier to fight terrorism by preventing people from entering the country. Blocking the people on the gates was not the only solution of Le Pen. She stressed that France needs to use more police force and very tightly securitize the border perimeter to keep the borders safe.
Another preparation of Le Pen while fighting terrorism is that some mosques that practice extremist acts should be closed. In order to pursue full-scale strife, Le Pen proposed the increase the number of policies that work either within the boundaries or inside the country. Besides that, she proposed to increase the number of prisons immediately. This was because, if Le Pen were elected, a large number of prisons would be needed as it would ensure the arrest of all people with links to Islamic terrorist organizations or the Muslim Brotherhood.
In summary, the counterterrorism policy of the Front National and Marine Le Pen is composed of protecting France from the outside. Therefore, unsurprisingly, she proposes isolated and single-handedly maintained policies. From the very beginning, she was blaming European Union because for creating this loose and mobile region indeed.
V- CONCLUSION
Taking everything into account, the goal of this study is to investigate a very complex and widespread problem populist radical right by attaching it with the two of the European Union's crises: The Eurozone crisis and the refugee crisis under a concrete case Marine Le Pen's hitting the presidential election's run-off by proposing measures that serve for these two crises. This paper briefly explained the position of Marine Le Pen in France and the EU and explained how her policies affect both the citizens and the European Union and how she is affected by both the citizens and the European Union while forming policies. In the light of exploring the election campaigns and proposals of Marine Le Pen, the theoretical framework she uses resembles the intergovernmental framework as she wants everything just for her nation. Although she sees the supranational European Union as a threat to the sovereign members of the EU, it can be concluded that she does not attach much importance to it.
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