Extremism

   Compared to most of its European neighbours, France is a country with a surprising level of tolerance of extremism. For instance, in the first round of the 2002 Presidential elections, virtually a third of all votes cast went to an extremist candidate in the first round of voting, on a turnout of 71% of the electorate. Almost 20% of votes went to the extreme right-wing Front National or ex-FN candidates, and 13.81% was split among four trotskyist or communist candidates. While this can be seen in part as a form of protest vote, or lack of confidence in mainstream political parties, it also illustrates the degree to which France remains a polarised society.

   Extremism has long historic roots in France, going back to absolutism and the collaboration of the Vichy régime on the one hand, and the excesses of the French Revolution on the other. However its current vigour can also be attributed to the fact that mainstream political parties in modern France, on the left and on the right, have done their bit to strenghten the position of extremist parties. Conservative parties have a long history of assimilating centre-left and socialist parties with the Communists and other far-left parties, while the Socialists have persistently sought to make political capital by portraying the mainstream conservative parties as the natural bedfellows of the far right. The paradoxical result has been to give credence and respectability to extremist parties and leaders such as Jean Marie Le Pen of the National Front, or Arlette Laguiller of Lutte Ouvrière.

   Furthermore, in their keenness to demonstrate even-handedness, French television stations and the media have persistently given coverage to charismatic politicians of the left and the right, turning people such as Le Pen, Laguiller or more recently Olivier Besancenot, into popular chat-show guests.