Will the Anti-Semitic Right Hold the Swing Votes In France?
HARRIS, DAVID A.
WILL THE Anti-Semitic Right HOLD THE Swing Votes in France DAVID A. HARRIS On April 24, France will hold its septennial presidential election. It is an election that holds special interest for...
...In 1972, Le Pen founded the National Front party...
...Le Pen himself is a dynamic and articulate leader, clever and politically astute...
...It is an election that holds special interest for Jews because of the possibility that a far-right candidate who enjoys only 10 percent of the electorate could end up controlling the swing votes that will determine the winner...
...Jean-Marie Le Pen, the candidate of the National Front, not only occupies a slot on the far right of France's political spectrum, he has also exhibited some frightening signs of racism and anti-Semitism...
...Le Pen then founded the National Front for a French Algeria and, until 1962, continued as a parliamentary deputy...
...In March 1986, he was found guilty and ordered to pay the symbolic one franc that LICRA had demanded...
...In 1986, the National Front surpassed the once-powerful French Communist party's performance, gaining 10 percent of the vote in the parliamentary elections and 33 of the 577 seats in the National Assembly...
...The principal election battle will be among France's three mainstream political parties— President Mitterand's left-of-center Socialist party, the right-of-center Union of French Democracy (Union pour la Democracie Francaise, or UDF) and Prime Minister Jacques Chirac's neo-Gaullist Rally for the Republic (Rassemblement Pour la Republique, or RPR...
...America is marked by ethnic diversity, but in France, despite some immigration, French Catholics are a clearly dominant group...
...Nine of ten Frenchmen are opposed to the denial of others' rights...
...Here are two recent examples: • In a September radio interview^ Le Pen provoked a national storm and, according to subsequent surveys, even lost some support among his more moderate followers, by describing Hitler's gas chambers as "a point of detail in the history of the Second World War...
...When the reporter questioned this characterization, Le Pen added, "Do you want to tell me that it is revealed truth that everybody must believe...
...And the mention of Lustiger's name was hardly sheer coincidence...
...Yet he chose four Jewish journalists...
...It is important that these 90 percent remain united, that no other elected official yield to the worst possible temptation (by pursuing the racist vote), even if their short-term political interests might be served...
...His campaign touched a responsive chord in voters increasingly concerned about crime, unemployment and immigration...
...8> French Anti-Semitism: A Subtle Presence More than 600,000 Jews live in France...
...Despite his party's avowed support for Israel (seen as a bulwark against the Arabs), Le Pen has made several deeply troubling statements about Jews...
...One hopes that France's front-running politicians will listen to Michel Noir, the minister of foreign trade, who took a strong stand against any cooperation with Le Pen...
...The extreme right however, has been credited with 117 attacks on Jews since 1980...
...Eighteen months earlier, at a National Front annual meeting, Le Pen was greeted by thunderous applause from the party faithful...
...He responded with these words, which, as explained below, carry a clear message: "I dedicate your welcome to Messrs...
...Le Pen has attracted a constituency that includes pieds noirs (French former residents of Algeria), as well as disgruntled ex-supporters of the Communist party who are unhappy with the party's inability to respond effectively to pressing economic questions, and urban dwellers— often middle-class and well-educated—who increasingly are concerned about the changing character of cities such as Marseilles and Toulon that have become, in their view, overrun with Arabs...
...Though the January polls indicate that Le Pen will get only 10 percent of the vote, his influence should not be underestimated...
...Action Directe, a radical left-wing group, was responsible for four anti-Semitic acts of violence...
...Monsignor Lustiger [Cardinal of Paris and a Jewish convert to Christianity] will forgive me this moment of anger, it happened even to Jesus...
...Jews and other concerned French citizens are waiting to see whether, faced with a runoff in the forthcoming presidential election, any mainstream political leaders, virtually all of whom have already condemned Le Pen, will retreat in their quest for votes...
...He returned a year later amid whispers of his complicity in torture by French troops...
...What might happen in the likely event of a presidential runoff...
...That it is a moral obligation...
...He seeks to undermine the very values of democracy and tolerance upon which French civilization is built...
...Immigrants from the Maghreb— Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco—have borne the brunt of Le Pen's attacks...
...Had Le Pen simply wanted to identify well-known media figures opposed to him, he could easily have found many non-Jewish journalists...
...First elected to France's National Assembly in 1956 on the short-lived Poujade party list (a movement of the petite bourgeoisie to protest the impact of modernization and industrialization), he left the parliament for an army tour of duty in conflict-ridden Algeria...
...Claiming to use a scientific approach, it contests the genocide of the Jewish people during the Third Reich...
...Le Pen is far outside the mainstream of French politics...
...The presence of such a strong national group sets Jews apart According to a report issued by the French Minister of the Interior in September 1987 entitled "Anti-Semitism in France," acts of violence directed against Jews and their property have decreased in the past seven years from 35 in 1980 and 39 in 1982, to 0 in 1986 and 3 in 1987 (at the time the report was released...
...As its presidential candidate, Le Pen purveys a highly nationalistic and xenophobic message that seeks to exploit the country's economic malaise (which includes double-digit unemployment) and appeals to the basest instincts of voters who fear that alien hordes are taking control of the country's destiny and culture...
...He portrays himself instead as a defender of freedom and of France's honor...
...But Le Pen has succeeded in taking the offensive, pushing the mainstream parties to compete with the National Front on such issues as immigration, illegal aliens and law and order...
...Le Pen is too clever and knows too well what arouses his audiences to have made such statements accidentally...
...Simultaneously, he became active in the presidential campaign of Jean-Louis Tixter-Vignanciourt, the extreme right's leader during the 1950s and 1960s and a lawyer close to the circles of former World War II French collaborators...
...In the April 1985 issue of L'Arche, the French Jewish monthly, Roger Ascot summed up this view: ' 'Such slogans as 'France for the French' can only offer division, violence, xenophobia, racism...
...His National Front party is Europe's strongest far-right political movement...
...No one knows for sure...
...Consequently, there should be no deals, no compromise with Le Pen...
...He ran for president two years later and received less than one percent of the popular vote...
...If a runoff is required—or even if a runoff looks likely—Le Pen could seek a broker's role and may be crucial in determining the winner...
...French Jewish groups, joining with Arab and other like-minded community organizations, have formed an organization called SOS Racisme to combat the National Front's thinly disguised racism...
...For the most part, they are well integrated into French society, and include several prominent government figures and a large number of France's leading intellectuals They've done well, but in spite of their success they perceive that some important sectors of French society, especially the traditional right, are suspicious of Jews...
...It should be repeated, therefore, the danger is there . . . However, let us not exaggerate the real peril...
...They are particularly concerned about some local and regional agreements that have been forged in recent years between the National Front and the conservative political parties (UDF and RPR) that form Prime Minister Chirac's coalition...
...Le Pen denies accusations of racism, fascism and anti-Semitism...
...When revisionism was introduced in the mid-1950s, it was taken seriously only by a few extremists, but as time has passed since the war years, revisionism has gained credibility with the new generation...
...A politician's responsibility, Noir asserted, "is not only to win elections," but "to insure that societies do not forget the values on which they are built...
...However, in 1984 his party's political fortunes enjoyed a spectacular turnaround: In that year the National Front won more than 10 percent of the vote in municipal elections and 11 percent in elections for deputies to the European Parliament...
...Support for the National Front also comes from such neo-fascist, racist and anti-Semitic publications as Militant and Present...
...The report says that the extreme right is inspired by neo-Nazis and revolutionary nationalist groups Except for a few bloody attacks, most of the actions were aimed at property belonging to Jews The report warns that while the number of attacks is decreasing the dissemination of anti-Semitic propaganda has been increasing since 1978...
...I say there are historians who debate these questions...
...France for the French" is one of his favorite slogans...
...I dedicate this welcome to all the liars in the country, to television journalists who dare to film empty chairs...
...He fared even worse in the 1981 presidential elections...
...Despite the Jewish community's understandable concern about Le Pen's high visibility, it is seeking to avoid overreacting, hoping that the National Front's popularity will prove short-lived...
...The real questions are whether any of the three mainstream parties will be willing to deal with Le Pen and, if so, what price they will be willing to pay...
...Jean Francois Kahn, Jean Daniel, Ivan Levai, Jean Pierre Elkabach [four Jewish journalists...
...International terrorists were responsible for six of these incidents in France this decade...
...The principal target of Le Pen's attacks has been the growing immigrant community, which, according to the National Office of Immigration, currently numbers 4.3 million...
...This new anti-Semitic propaganda is based on the approach known as "revisionism...
...He asserts they are "unassimilable," "alien" and "dangerous," and, in his view, should be returned to their native countries...
...The situation in France differs from that in the United States because of differences in the degree of assimilation...
...The International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Ligue Internationale Contre le Racisme Anti-Semitique, or LICRA) took Le Pen to court for these remarks, accusing him of racial incitement...
...He further argues that they cost the hard-pressed French economy more than S15 billion per year in social services, a figure government officials deny...
...These people are the shame of their profession...
...If none of them receive a clear majority in the election, then a runoff between the two top vote-getters will be held two weeks later...
...To do or say anything else would prove a sad day for France...
...A September 1987 poll, commissioned by a prominent French weekly, Le Mouvel Observateur, found that while 15 big-city mayors belonging to the coalition parties foreclosed any dealings with the National Front, nine others hedged...
Vol. 13 • April 1988 • No. 2
