French neo-fascist Le Pen, interior minister debate anti-Muslim policies
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/02/13/fran-f13.html
Alex Lantier
On Thursday night, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin and neo-fascist
Marine Le Pen held an hour-long debate on France2 TV. The result was a
sinister, degraded spectacle, focused on fascistic measures against
Muslims and immigrants, in which the moderators admitted that it was
difficult to distinguish Le Pen from Darmanin.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin debates far-right leader Marine
Le Pen Thursday night in a televised debate [L’Obs, YouTube]
Before this carefully staged event, the press published a battery of
polls on potential candidates in next year’s French presidential
elections. An IFOP poll found that 67 percent of the population expects
Le Pen and President Emmanuel Macron to make it to the second round,
setting up a rematch of the 2017 elections. Moreover, 70 percent would
be unhappy about such an election. A Harris Interactive poll found that
currently Macron would only very narrowly defeat Le Pen, who would get
48 percent of the vote.
The debate thus had the character of an attempt by the French political
establishment and media to frame the 2022 elections, with Darmanin
standing in for Macron—presuming that Macron runs again, despite his
massive unpopularity. That a debate between France’s best-known
neo-fascist and its top cop could be taken as a preview of the next
elections points to the increasingly fascistic course of the ruling class.
Though France has seen 3.4 million of Europe’s 32 million cases of
COVID-19 and 81,000 of its over three-quarters of a million deaths, not
a word was spoken about the pandemic. Le Pen had confirmed shortly
before, in an interview with Jean-Jacques Bourdin on BFM-TV, that she
opposes lockdowns. Nor was there a word on France’s bloody war in Mali
or the grotesque levels of social inequality produced by austerity
policies imposed by Macron, the “president of the rich.” On these
fascistic policies, there is unanimity in the ruling elite.
Instead, moderators Léa Salamé, Thomas Sotto and Nathalie Saint-Cricq
began by pressing Le Pen to say if she supports the ultra-repressive
“anti-separatist” law, which would allow the state to impose loyalty
oaths and dissolve associations or political parties. Drafted under
Darmanin’s authority at the Interior Ministry and presented as a measure
targeting Muslims, this bill is now under discussion at the National
Assembly.
Le Pen floundered as she tried to criticize this fascistic bill,
claiming she was “disappointed” in the law, and complaining that it does
not openly declare that it targets Islam. She also obliquely referred to
the dangers the law poses not only to Muslim associations, but to the
entire public. She said: “We needed a great, fighting law, not an
administrative text. You are limiting the liberties of everyone, but you
are not struggling against Islamist ideology.”
Darmanin responded by attacking Le Pen from the right, as “soft” on
Islam. “You are acting with softness, Mrs. Le Pen, you have gone so far
that you say that Islam is not a problem,” he said—an astonishing and
sinister statement about a religion practiced by an estimated 3.5
million people in France. He later added: “Mrs. Le Pen, as she attempts
to de-demonize her party, has come to act with softness. You should take
vitamins, I find that you are not tough enough!”
There ensued a debate on whether the Macron administration has been
successful in limiting immigration. The moderators also speculated about
whether Le Pen is “mature” or “presidential” enough to serve as
president, and Darmanin repeatedly insisted that Le Pen is poorly prepared.
Le Pen also hailed Darmanin’s book, Islamist Separatism: A Manifesto for
Secularism, just out in bookstores. “I could have signed this book. You
define Islamism very clearly,” she said, adding: “But what of all that
remains in the law? Very little.” She called to ban publicly wearing the
headscarf, making it virtually illegal to be a practicing Muslim.
Darmanin advanced the fascistic argument that French law can ban burqas
or headscarves, but only that its principles prevent it from openly
stating it is targeting a religion. “Secularism, that means precisely
not recognizing them,” Darmanin claimed. Referring to the 1905
secularism law, he claimed: “Everyone knows it was made against the
Catholic Church, but it is not called the Law against the Catholic
Church. It is called the law of separation of church and state.”
This is a travesty of French law. The principle of secularism mandates
state neutrality on religious issues and prevents the state from
instituting or favoring a religion. It does not allow the state to
target a religion or its members. Darmanin’s characterization of the
1905 law as an attack on Catholicism, which still exercises vast
influence in France over a century after the 1905 law passed, reflects
Darmanin’s own far-right views.
It was confirmed last week that Darmanin is a former sympathizer and
writer for the Action française , the fascist, monarchist group that
opposed the 1905 secularism law and supported the Nazi-collaborationist
Vichy regime. Re-established in 1955, it took back its original name in
2010. The fact that French law on religious affairs is being rewritten
under the authority of an Action française sympathizer is another
warning to the far-right turn of official politics.
When Macron and Le Pen emerged as the candidates in the second round of
the 2017 elections, the Parti de l’égalité socialiste (PES), the French
section of the International Committee of the Fourth International,
called for an active boycott. It warned that Macron was no alternative
to a neo-fascist. Its warning had nothing in common, however, with an
abstentionist position. The only way forward, it stressed, was to build
a politically independent movement in the working class against
whichever reactionary candidate won.
Nearly four years later, this assessment has been fully vindicated.
Macron, who in 2018 hailed France’s Nazi-collaborationist dictator and
convicted traitor Philippe Pétain as a “great soldier” in the face of
mass strikes and “yellow vest” protests, has pursued a fascistic course.
Ramming through labor reforms, rail privatizations and pension cuts in
the face of mass popular opposition, he came to rely virtually entirely
on the police forces as his social base.
The ruling elite’s murderous “herd immunity” policy on the pandemic has
vastly accelerated the turn towards fascism internationally. In
Washington, on January 6, US President Donald Trump incited a coup
attempt on the US Capitol in Washington, in an attempt to overturn his
defeat in the 2020 presidential elections. In France, Macron is trying
to pass a “global security law,” authorizing the use of drones against
protesters and to ban taking videos of police, in addition to the
“anti-separatist” law.
Pseudo-left parties of the affluent middle class that backed Macron,
openly or tacitly, in 2017 are complicit in this. All helped implement
Macron’s “herd immunity” policy, overseeing the return of workers to
work and of children to school, leading to a resurgence of the virus
that cost tens of thousands of lives in France alone. The Stalinist
French Communist Party (PCF) and Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s Unsubmissive
France underscored their political complicity last week by supporting or
abstaining in votes on the “anti-separatist” law’s reactionary provisions.
Former Green Party leader Cécile Duflot was virtually alone in this
milieu in warning on Macron’s fascistic policy. “Historically, those in
power were the most blind at great tipping points: this was true in
World War I, when Nazism took power or in pre-Mussolini Italy,” Duflot
wrote in Le Monde.
She added: “Democrats do not seem to realize that France can easily turn
into a quasi-dictatorship. … The bill on separatism has very dangerous
limitations on civil society. Adding to that measures on the state of
emergency and general laws, I let you imagine the disaster that can
unfold in a few days if [Le Pen] gets power.”
In reality, France has turned into a quasi-dictatorship under Macron.
Even if the now entirely plausible scenario of a neo-fascist victory
next year is averted, it could still become a fascist regime under
Macron or one of his allies.
The defense of workers’ lives and democratic rights against Macron’s
fascistic laws and policies requires the independent political
mobilization of the working class. Only the preparation of a
European-wide general strike to impose a scientifically-guided
confinement policy, independently of unions who support “herd immunity”
policies, can halt the pandemic. Such a movement would pose the question
of developing a mass socialist political movement to transfer state
power to the working class.
Subscribe to the WSWS email newsletter
Email
I want to receive this newsletter. I agree that any information
submitted to this form will be processed in accordance with the privacy
policy and may be combined with other information.
READ MORE
French Communist Party and Unsubmissive France back Macron government’s
far-right “anti-separatist” law
11 February 2021
Macron dictates “Charter of principles” to the French Islamic Council
31 January 2021
No to Macron and Le Pen! For an active boycott of the French election!
27 April 2017
VIEW 3 COMMENTS
CONTACT US
Find out more about these topics:
FranceFascismPoliticsEurope
FRANCE
French Communist Party and Unsubmissive France back Macron government’s
far-right “anti-separatist” law
The law drastically restricts the freedom of association and religious
freedoms under the pretext of fighting against Islamic “separatism.”
Jacques Valentin•11 February 2021
French universities reopen despite spread of coronavirus, new variants
French universities are returning to partial in-person education,
opening the door for further anti-lockdown measures as the British
variant continues to spread.
Samuel Tissot•8 February 2021
French teachers denounce Macron government’s “herd immunity” policy in
schools
Last night, Prime Minister Jean Castex delivered a press conference to
announce that the government was continuing to reject any lock-down
measures.
Will Morrow•5 February 2021
Workers Struggle (LO) tries to strangle French workers’ opposition to
herd immunity policies
As the unions organize a national day of action today, the LO party
insists that only the trade unions—who support "herd immunity"
policies—can lead the working class.
Anthony Torres•3 February 2021
French government rejects a new lockdown to stop coronavirus spread
Alex Lantier•31 January 2021
Macron dictates “Charter of principles” to the French Islamic Council
Jacques Valentin, Alex Lantier•31 January 2021
NPA calls to reopen French universities as COVID-19 deaths mount
Samuel Tissot, Alex Lantier•29 January 2021
Macron government denounces scientists for “intervening” in pandemic
response
Will Morrow•28 January 2021
For a European-wide strike against school openings!
Network of Action Committees for Safe Education•27 January 2021
© 1998-2021 World Socialist Web Site. All rights reserved.
HomeAboutContactPrivacy StatementPrivacy Settings
--
Emmett F. Fields “ Atheism is more than just the knowledge that gods do
not exist, and that religion is either a mistake or a fraud. Atheism is
an attitude, a frame of mind that looks at the world objectively,
fearlessly, always trying to understand all things as a part of nature.
” ― Emmett F. Fields