Opinion
If this was an Olympic event, Le Pen’s far right would not make the podium
Peter FitzSimons
Columnist and authorParis: Et alors! If political joy in Place de La Republique on Sunday evening was in itself a Paris Olympics event, it would have been the left and centre winning gold and silver, while the far right of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally would not have even made the podium, instead being allocated a [DNF]: did not finish.
In this traditional gathering place for the French during seismic political events, all the competing mobs of the main political groups started gathering in the late afternoon, ready for the results of the crucial second round of the election for the National Assembly to be announced.
People stand in a square as they react to projected results after the second round of the legislative elections.Credit: AP
Le Pen’s people, as expected, were heavily male, very white, and several were on the thuggish, menacing side of things. Macron’s centre and the left looked a lot more like France itself these days – heavily multicultural and much younger. Ready for trouble, hundreds of armed police hovered nearby but made no move to stop the young ones climbing all over the monument right in the middle of this football-field-sized square.
Atop the plinth, of course, stood “Marianne”, the personification of the French Republic, holding an olive branch of peace aloft in her right hand, while her other hand rested on a tablet engraved with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
Was this to be her night, or would France lurch closer to what Le Pen’s critics say would be outright fascism – if her side achieved a majority in the Assembly, as feared?
The polls would close at 8pm (4am Monday AEST), and at that point, everyone knew, there would be an all but instant calculation of the likely final results, just as what happened in Britain at the close of the polls on Thursday (Friday AEST).
People celebrate at Place de La Republique after the second round of the legislative election.Credit: AP
Rival chants competed for volume, but one encouraging sign for those fearing a triumph for the right was just how many women were here for the left, holding banners, chanting, refusing to back off or back down to those from the National Rally.
Tensions rose further as the time approached for the first results to be announced.
And now it happens.
At precisely 8pm, the provisional results flash through on 10,000 iPhones, and a massive roar goes up.
La gauche est en tete!
The left is in the lead!
Tears, cheers, jeers, chants and rants are the result – but the overall feeling is sheer joie.
Ah, sing it, mes amis. And so they do.
Le jour de gloire, est arrive!
For now, the menace of a huge shift to the right has been defeated, and those black-shirt boyos now melting away might win another day, but not today.
For me, standing high on the monument myself and looking around, was to get a grasp on how this extraordinary win was put together.
One blonde young woman held up a sign: La France a moi, elle est metissee. ”My France, she is mixed race.”
And the proof was all around her in this throbbing, ecstatic crowd. For they were indeed all colours of the rainbow, all religions, all sexualities, all ages, all abilities and disabilities. Many were in wheelchairs, some were infirm, a lot were wearing the headwear of Islamic adherents. Right up the front, a little boy was kicking a soccer ball.
These were the ones who had felt most threatened by Marine Le Pen’s National Rally and they had risen in force across the country, with a near-record turnout to defeat them.
And now to the chants as the light starts to ebb, and it is mostly young women – who by my count make up 60 per cent of the mob – who lead it.
Fascistes! Racistes!
C’est VOUS, les terrorists!
The drums beat, the cheers ring, and they go hard, to the beat of the drums.
Premier! Deuxieme! Troisieme! Generation! On s’en fout! On est chez nous!
“First! Second! Third! Generation! We don’t care! We are at home!”
As the sun casts a wonderful glow over the whole throbbing Place de la Republique. I swear Marianne herself did a little jig.
Gold, gold, gold for France. It was a privilege to be among them.
If I was a betting man, it feels like this might give some pointers to the election at the end of the year in the US, too. That is, it is one thing for huge swathes of the populace to flirt with the extreme right. But when it comes right down to it, the spectre of actual fascism rallies the rest and they rise in triumph.
A great day for France, and an even better night ahead.
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