Eoin O’Malley: ‘Why has the left failed to work out why their voters are attracted to populist nationalists?’

Marine Le Pen, leader of France's Rassemblement National party. Photo: Reuters

Eoin O’Malley

Today’s parliamentary elections in France look likely to deliver another blow to Europe’s liberal order. Last week also saw the formation of a Geert Wilders government in the Netherlands. The success of France’s Rassemblement National (RN), Marine Le Pen’s populist nationalist party, will inevitably mean that we’ll get breathless comments that “Europe is swinging to the right”.

It’s wrong on this. First, we can see that most of those voting for these so-called “far right” parties are hardly right wing on many issues. They tend to be working class, and usually support state intervention. But they are opposed to what they see as the state helping big business. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, could be seen as the epitome of the merger of the state and business in the “radical centre”.