‘Anyone but Marine Le Pen’

PAULA SLIER

I was reminded of this – the sentiment and not the years in office – as French voters headed to the polls last Sunday to vote for “anyone but Le Pen”.

However, unlike in Israel where Netanyahu again won the elections, the refrain stood steadfast in France and its far-right National Front leader, Marine Le Pen, suffered a major defeat at the hands of centrist Emmanuel Macron in the final round of the country’s presidential elections.

Ask the average Israeli what he or she thinks of the result and they’ll tell you that both candidates were bad choices. In the days leading up to the French elections, I took to the streets of Tel Aviv with a photograph of Le Pen and Macron on my Ipad and stopped ordinary Israelis.

“Who is this?”

Just about everyone recognised Le Pen by name. Only two out of 10 knew Macron. Several didn’t know either.

“Le Pen hates Muslims and that’s why I like her,” was the most common answer I received. “But the problem is also that she doesn’t like Jews.” That too was a view echoed by many.

Among the just-over 13 000 French citizens who cast their ballots in Israel, an overwhelming 94 per cent gave Macron the nod – it wasn’t so much a vote of confidence in the 39-year-old former banker and relative newcomer to French politics – as it was a vote against Le Pen.

Their reasoning was simple: They feared the leader of the far-right would make good on her threat to strip French-Israelis of their dual citizenship and that her victory would bode badly for Jews in France.

Le Pen stunned many when she recently suggested Paris was not responsible for the wartime roundup of Jews who were sent to Nazi death camps. She has also called for a ban on wearing Jewish and Muslim religious symbols in public, ritual slaughter and giving pork-free meals in school cafeterias.

Her father, Jean-Marie, who established the party in the 1970s, is a known Holocaust denier who infamously called the gas chambers a mere “detail of history”. He has also claimed that the German occupation of France was not “particularly inhumane”.

But the fact that his daughter lost these elections doesn’t mean Israelis are smiling. Nor are the French (one third of whom abstained or spoilt their vote – a record number in nearly half a century).

Brussels may be sleeping a little more soundly this week, but it doesn’t mean the EU’s future – or that of the new pro-EU French president – is secure. Far from it. Macron’s victory will no doubt briefly stem the global wave of the British Brexit, the Donald Trump victory and the struggle by Europe to get a handle on the hundreds of thousands of immigrants seeking refuge within her borders. But the undercurrents are still there and growing.

If the votes are translated into actual numbers of people who voted, Le Pen won 10,6 million votes (half that of Macron), trailing behind the 16 million people who didn’t vote for either candidate. So, she actually came third, but it was the best electoral result her party, since its establishment, has ever achieved.

In Le Pen’s own words, her “massive result” cemented her as the leader of the country’s opposition, sending a shiver down the backs of many who have been watching with mounting anxiety the rising power of the far right across the continent.

As one Israeli politician told me, Le Pen has now positioned herself as a true political force that won’t be disappearing in the coming years. In this respect she is the true winner of the elections.

Netanyahu, alongside many international leaders, congratulated Macron, saying one of the greatest threats facing the world is Islamic terror. In a statement issued by his office, Netanyahu stressed that Israel and France would continue working together to combat it.

Across the Israeli political spectrum, lawmakers echoed his remarks, despite the fact that Le Pen has tried to appeal to Israeli and Jewish sentiment by drawing common cause over the fight against radical Islam.

Most Israelis are having none of it. But Macron is not particularly strong on fighting extremism and has been painted as weak and inexperienced on security issues by his critics. Nonetheless he is considered to be pro-Israel and there is some expectation that under his leadership there will be a strengthening of co-operation between France and Israel.

He supports the two-state solution and is against the BDS movement. Israeli officials say they expect French foreign policy to continue as is, with no major strategic changes.

Macron is all smiles at the moment, but there is concern that his victory will be short-lived. In June the country will hold parliamentary elections and in order to govern properly, the new president needs to get as many of his people elected – Le Pen is already gunning for those seats and is making plans for a major party makeover.

Macron at present has no seats at all in the parliament and in the end, how much clout he will have in the assembly, will determine his ability to pass reforms and live up to his election promises. Should he fail, Brussels, Israel and indeed much of the world, could be forced to deal with a reality that for now they prefer to keep under the carpet – a far-right president in office. 

Paula Slier is the Middle East Bureau Chief of RT, the founder and CEO of NewshoundMedia and the inaugural winner of the Europcar Woman in Leadership Award of the South African Absa Jewish Achievers.