THE FRENCH VIEW _TRANSLATED Translation by Alison BY ALISON REID
FN - YOU’VE GOT NOTHING! es, the Front National received
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one quarter of French votes in the European elections. Yes, the political scene in France will experience considerable fallout, seeing as the FN can no longer be considered the outsider it used to be. But this evidence should not overshadow another point, which is no less important. Aside from the fact that it remains to be seen whether or not Mme Le Pen could gain as many votes in a national election – an election which, however wrongly, will be considered by many as being more important – the truth of the matter is that more than two thirds of voters did not come from the extreme Right, do not favour leaving the euro and do not wish to ‘block everything’ in the European Union in the hope that the organisation might collapse. Aftershock there may be, but it remains limited in France thanks to this balance of forces, and the same is to be said throughout Europe. Even if we were to assume that nationalists, europhopes and crypto-fascists all fell into the same single category (which they do not), this category would still only make up a fifth of the seats in the European parliament. Of course, they will be given a voice and will be able to strengthen their cases with the resources made available to parties in Strasbourg. This is by no means insignificant. But, however many of them there may be, these ministers will not be able to ‘block everything’, or even influence the European developments which will emerge from the compromises made between parties more favourable of unity within Europe.
The only member state in which the European election results will have any real immediate consequences is Great Britain, the reason being that there, it is not just supporters of the extreme Right who are rejecting Europe. Britain only joined the European Union (named the European Community, at the time) so as to avoid being excluded from the common market, and since joining, the country has done nothing but hinder the progress of political union, today preferring to step out of the community rather than to remain in an organisation it sees as moving, however slowly, towards a federal horizon. This would certainly create a shock. The false but absolute belief in the durability of the European Union would be undermined. But with Britain no longer there stepping on the brakes, political unity within the European Union could soon take some decisive steps… that is, before Great Britain comes back knocking on Europe’s door again, having realised after ten or fifteen years that it has no real prospects without integration in the continent it forms part of (island or not). So aftershock there may be, but its intensity is only really so great because it is beginning to highlight the extent to which the fall of the Soviet Union has rocked the political chessboard of Europe. The Rightwing is no longer united by its fear of communism. The Left-wing is no longer characterised by its rejection of capitalism. With some exceptions, the market
economy is now generally accepted, and the differences between Left and Right are thus no longer as great as they were. Even at the heart of these two forces, the differences are now based on degrees of divergence regarding regulations and the
distribution of capital, acknowledgement of environmental concerns, changes in laws based on moral developments, and the pooling of national sovereignty. But these are not small differences. On the contrary, they represent fundamental dissimilarities which sketch out the dot ted lines of new political boundaries, still in the process of development. Parties dating back to the 19th century along with those which appeared during the last decades are all undergoing a chemical change, and the fact is that it is this
Gary Jackson
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