Party at the End of the World

[Valin]

The Weekly Standard:

France avenges itself on Nicolas Sarkozy

Christopher Caldwell

Nov 14, 2016

 

Whenever an American presidential election threatens to produce a controversial or conservative victor, some of our intellectuals and celebrities swear that, should the dread event come, they’re going to "move to Paris."

 

This year there wouldn't be much point.

 

France's presidential election season has just begun and it looks like ours. One side believes the country is doing just fine, even evolving into a better civilization. The other side believes the country's present course is a death spiral, and the election is basically a referendum on whether the public wishes its civilization to die or not. Under Donald Trump, the Republican party has become—and is likely to remain—the party that holds the second view.

 

In France this transformation is coming, but it is going to take a different institutional form. The country already has its apocalyptic party: the National Front (FN), which has been a major player in French politics for three decades. Although the FN is scrupulously democratic, the number of French people who fear it is the seed of a new fascist movement has generally exceeded the number who see it merely as a forthright expression of patriotism. That appears to be changing. The FN's hostility to the European Union, to mass immigration, to free trade: These now strike a chord in a far wider segment of the French population. And since the British vote to leave the European Union last June, it seems possible these goals are susceptible of realization.

 

(Snip)