EDITORIAL/1
The root cause of the success of the Front National is a scared Country and an EU in a crisis of thought
France, EU founding Country, had conceived with Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman a radically new Europe on the aftermath of World War II, a Europe based on reconciliation between former belligerent parties and on the creation of a true “community of destinies”. However, after the recent European elections, the Country that assigned 25% of votes to Front National’s radical right seems to have turned its back to the monumental human adventure of united Europe. In the year marking the centenary of World War I, a dreadful carnage that resulted from an exasperate, senseless form of nationalism, France, the founding country of the European Coal and Steel Community, which was conceived to prevent the resurgence of armed conflicts, seems to long for the recovery of its bygone isolationist fantasies, waging a lonely battle. In the 70th anniversary of the allied forces’ landing in Normandy and Provence, and the ensuing Liberation, the France of Jacques Maritain and Charles de Gaulle have given a relative majority vote to a Party that is nostalgic of Vichy and its discrimination laws, a party that is heir to Charles Maurras’ philosophy (1868-1952) and its racist nationalism. It isn’t just a political tragedy. It’s the failure of that very intelligence that had led the men and women of the Resistance to envision a future of peace under Nazi occupation. Citizens throughout Europe voted against Europe, opting for so-called eurosceptic parties: here in Italy, they voted for some joker, as in Italy; for more or less openly xenophobic parties elsewhere, which represent minority groups at national level. Those votes convey a fear in the future, given the present economic downturn and European identity crisis, along with a feeling of misunderstanding, and even of exasperation, before poorly democratic institutions that citizens view as incomprehensible, owing to their hyper-complexities and distance from the population at large. Moreover, as previously mentioned, they represent minority stands that combine protest and disquietude except for two Countries: France and the UK. However, the United Kingdom is an island overlooking the Atlantic, which never truly accepted EU adhesion and where UKIP, a pro-independence, poorly organized party, poorly rooted in the British nation, gained a majority vote. France constitutes a remarkable different case, thereby prompting reasons for serious concern primarily because France has long since triggered the engine of United Europe alongside with Germany and Italy. Furthermore, the Front National is an organized, well-structured party, with a leader, an ideology and a political program, and since past March’s local elections it has control over several districts. It is rumoured, even among supporters of the moderate-right, that FN’s programme is so radical and absurd that Madame Le Pen would never be able to implement it, that she will have to adopt a realistically pragmatic approach. Yet, history scholars cannot fail to be perturbed by this reasoning, mindful of the fact that the same was said in 1930 Germany and Europe about the Nazi party which – just like the FN – had a leader, an ideology, and a program that was later systematically put into practice. The Front National’s discourse should be taken seriously, as its project is likely to be put into action. Indeed, France is ailing. Its disease is fear, pessimism, a mediocre political leadership and parties affected by internal crises. The election and constitutional systems are positively marked by the alternation of movements and political parties that share the same vision of democracy and of Europe. But it’s a rigid system, and it risks posing a danger if a party with an ideological tradition that is alien to democracy managed to prevail. It would be the very denial of France and Europe combined, the denial of the values of democracy, peace, and welcome. This scenario is dangerously near, in a context of economic crisis, whereby globalization decreases Europe’s role in the world. Most of all, there is a crisis in thought.
