France is not just a postcard everywhere. In the outlying districts of Marseille, the beauty of the Provençal landscape is completely hidden by these huge apartment buildings built in a hurry during the Trente Glorieuses to accommodate workers from the countryside and from southern European countries. Over the years, immigrants from the Maghreb, mainly Algeria, have also settled there. Several long-time residents, overcome by a great feeling of insecurity, say they no longer feel at home there. Many of them are now turning to the National Rally (RN).
“It’s changed a lot here. Going out at night has become complicated. We don’t feel safe anymore,” confides Marguerite Lindi before jumping on the bus that will take her to the city centre.
The daughter of Italian immigrants never thought she would join the far right. But for the first time in her life last Sunday, she cast a ballot for the National Rally in the hopes of sending a clear message to Parisian elites.
Les Caillols, the neighborhood where she lives in the 12the borough, are not a particularly dangerous place in broad daylight. You can walk there without fear of anything. Here, at first glance, there are no shooting galleries or gatherings of homeless people in distress, as in certain areas of Montreal.
The problems lie elsewhere, however. As evidenced by the carcass of a completely burnt-out car lying in front of a council estate. “Welcome to Marseille,” Jean-Paul Ricard says ironically in his sing-song accent as he sees this pile of debris in the middle of the street in the distance while he walks his dog.
According to the retired police officer’s experience, it could be a car that was stolen to be used in a burglary and then set on fire to leave no trace. After all, the Marseille region is the place in France with the highest rate of burglaries. The same goes for vehicle thefts. The Phocaean city has also always been a hub for drug trafficking due to its status as a port city.
According to Jean-Paul Ricard, there is a serious shift to be made. This is why this former voter of the moderate right is also supporting the National Rally in these legislative elections, like many police officers and military personnel, as various opinion polls have shown over the years.
Blocking the far left
His great fear for the second round on Sunday is that the RN will not obtain an absolute majority and that President Macron will succeed in governing the country with the left-wing parties. A likely scenario, while both the presidential coalition and the New Popular Front have called for blocking the RN. Faced with a candidate from the National Rally in a position to be elected, the Macronists who had managed to qualify for the second round by coming third were called upon to withdraw in favor of the alliance of left-wing parties. The New Popular Front gave the same instruction to its candidates who came third.
“We risk ending up with a rainbow coalition. The country will be completely ungovernable. Macron is wrong to try to continue to avoid governing with the RN. The real threat to democracy is the left, with Mélenchon,” maintains Jean-Paul Ricard.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the radical left, has recently made a series of controversial statements on police violence and the Israel-Hamas war. In the eyes of many, he has become more dangerous than the far right, which has erased the most radical elements of his program, such as the ban on dual nationality.
Christophe, an unemployed man encountered in a café, also gets hives at the mere mention of Mélenchon’s name. Last Sunday, this abstainer voted for the far right. He did not want to give his last name, as joining the RN remains a delicate subject for many in France.
“If I did it, it wasn’t for economic reasons or for purchasing power, none of that. It’s true that the country is doing rather well economically. But in terms of security and immigration, that’s another story. These are the only two reasons that motivated me to vote for the RN,” explains Christophe, also of Italian origin. He specifies, however, that he feels “100% French.” For him, the direct link between delinquency and immigration is beyond doubt.
“The country has changed a lot”
Foreigners, i.e. those who do not have French nationality, represented 18% of those questioned by law enforcement in 2019, while their weight in the population was then estimated at 7%. Still according to official government figures, the number of French citizens questioned for offences or crimes increased by 1% between 2016 and 2019. The increase amounts to 15% among foreigners.
“I have come to the conclusion that not all cultures can integrate with ours. I didn’t have these ideas before. The last time I voted, before Sunday, it was against Sarkozy, in 2012, because I found that his speech aroused hatred. I no longer see things in the same way today, because the country has changed a lot,” says Christophe, while expressing irritation at the ostentatious presence of Islam in the public space.
Providence Garcia is outraged that so many people from the first waves of immigration from southern European countries are today so hostile to the presence of Arabs in France. “What is it? We opened the door to you and now that you’ve come in, you want to close it?” says the woman whose parents fled Franco’s Spain.
This left-wing voter does not live in the 12the arrondissement, but she teaches Spanish in a public middle school. A rather disadvantaged school, where some students have to resort to assistance programs to eat lunch or pay for their school supplies. That many of their parents, in precarious situations, necessarily, have today abandoned the left for the extreme right leaves her perplexed.
“The class struggle has been erased from consciousness. The rich have managed to make the poor believe that their interests are the same. Today, there are people who worry that taxes will increase if the New Popular Front comes to power, when they don’t even pay any. One of the reasons for this great persuasion is called Vincent Bolloré,” says Providence Garcia with obvious detestation.
The youth no longer bothers the RN
Vincent Bolloré is the wealthy Breton businessman whose conservative ideas rub off on the media he owns. Among his arsenal: the news channel CNews, often compared to Fox News. But also C8, the entertainment channel on which the clownish Cyril Hanouna, the enfant terrible of French television, rages.
His show Do not touch My TVwhich often takes on the air of a circus with its completely overexcited guests, is one of the most listened to by adolescents and young adults in France. It is often accused of giving a disproportionate amount of speaking time to hard-right personalities.
“We see the effect on young people. I have students who are 14-15 years old and who distribute leaflets for the RN. We would never have seen that before. Young people today are more on the right than on the left,” says Providence Garcia sadly.
She is part of the generation that chanted in the streets “Youth screw the National Front” after Jean-Marie Le Pen’s surprise qualification for the second round of the presidential election in 2002. Times have changed since then, it must be said.