In each of the 2002, 2017, and 2022 presidential elections in France, the Rassemblement National (formerly known as the Front National) reached the second round of voting, and almost doubled their number of votes in this time. In the legislative elections of June 2022, the party founded by by Jean-Marie Le Pen achieved a historic breakthrough, obtaining 89 seats in the National Assembly, compared to just eight in the previous elections. This rise in support was also reflected in the European elections of 2019, during which the far-right party even came out on top of the election, ahead of the presidential majority party, thus breaking its previous voting records. As a movement that was almost non-existent in the ballot box at the beginning of the 1980s, this extremist fringe of the political spectrum transformed itself to become an important player on the political and media scene in France.
Desire for autocratic power is reflected in the support for policies such as reinstatement of the death penalty, or the desire to elect an authoritarian leader as head of the country. The rejection of immigration is a point of convergence for all far-right groups, and the belief that France was home to too many immigrants was almost universal among RN supporters in 2021. The place of Islam in France was also a controversial issue, and a large majority of radical right-wing supporters claimed that it was not compatible with the values of French society.
There are, however, societal debates that divide the far right, such as expanding rights of medically assisted reproduction; in 2020, only half of Marine Le Pen's supporters were in favor of granting access to assisted reproduction for lesbian women. The question of wealth inequality is also a growing issue for far-right voters - while only 52 percent of them considered that it was necessary to take from the rich to give to the poor in 2013, this rate climbed to 67 percent in 2020. This desire for economic redistribution is accompanied by a mass rejection of globalization, where only one in five voters saw the globalized economy as an opportunity, rather than a threat.
Far from the violence advocated by these terrorists, everyday racist acts are increasing year after year in France. The PHAROS platform, created in 2009 by the French government to report illegal online content and behavior, recorded a growing number of reports for online content deemed "xenophobic and racist” between 2017 and 2020, with Muslims in France being disproportionately targeted. Intelligence services have also recorded a significant number of anti-Muslim acts since 2010, with a peak in 2015, the year of the terrorist attacks in France.
Block rejection of immigration, but contrasting social and economic positions
In France, the term "far right" is commonly used to describe any movement that advocates an authoritarian and traditionalist ideology of society, based on overtly nationalist values. These movements openly admit to aims of excluding certain groups based on their ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation.Desire for autocratic power is reflected in the support for policies such as reinstatement of the death penalty, or the desire to elect an authoritarian leader as head of the country. The rejection of immigration is a point of convergence for all far-right groups, and the belief that France was home to too many immigrants was almost universal among RN supporters in 2021. The place of Islam in France was also a controversial issue, and a large majority of radical right-wing supporters claimed that it was not compatible with the values of French society.
There are, however, societal debates that divide the far right, such as expanding rights of medically assisted reproduction; in 2020, only half of Marine Le Pen's supporters were in favor of granting access to assisted reproduction for lesbian women. The question of wealth inequality is also a growing issue for far-right voters - while only 52 percent of them considered that it was necessary to take from the rich to give to the poor in 2013, this rate climbed to 67 percent in 2020. This desire for economic redistribution is accompanied by a mass rejection of globalization, where only one in five voters saw the globalized economy as an opportunity, rather than a threat.
Media coverage of far-right ideals and personalities
A prominent face of the far-right in French media, Éric Zemmour, saw his support level peak at 18 percent of voting intentions for the 2022 presidential election in November 2021. A journalist and essayist convicted three times of incitement of hatred or discrimination, he was only removed from CNews because of his presumed candidacy, and the channel owned by Bolloré still gave the most airtime to far-right personalities in spring 2021. Media regulator CSA measures the airtime of political figures, but it remains difficult to measure the propagation of the ideals of a political movement in the traditional media. However, researchers are able to categorize online viewer numbers by content type and their perceived leaning or bias; for example, on YouTube, channels categorized as "extreme right" or "counter-information" were much less popular in 2021 than left-wing media or personalities such as Mr. Globalization or Osons Causer.Right-wing extremism, online hate, and racist crimes
The "great replacement" theory, a concept that promotes the idea that white Europeans will be replaced by non-white migrants (particularly Muslims), originated in France in the 2010s and is shared by far-right figures such as Zemmour. Such ideas have inspired deadly attacks around the world, and although no racially motivated attack in France has caused as much loss as examples from New Zealand or the U.S., the number of arrests for crimes related to far-right terrorism has risen in recent years, with a peak in arrests in 2018.Far from the violence advocated by these terrorists, everyday racist acts are increasing year after year in France. The PHAROS platform, created in 2009 by the French government to report illegal online content and behavior, recorded a growing number of reports for online content deemed "xenophobic and racist” between 2017 and 2020, with Muslims in France being disproportionately targeted. Intelligence services have also recorded a significant number of anti-Muslim acts since 2010, with a peak in 2015, the year of the terrorist attacks in France.
