NAR: On the results of the second round of the parliamentary elections in France

NAR for the Communist Liberation: On the results of the second round of the parliamentary elections in France

France, a G7 country and another pillar of the EU together with Germany, is going through a phase of political crisis. It is a consequence of the crisis of French capitalism, its intolerance towards the new environment of intensified competition, its retreat in Africa. Le Pen's extreme Right - a historical political current that has been claiming power for decades in France - has incorporated much of the Gaullist Right, conquering the institutional representation of the entire spectrum of the Right as a governing force that already guarantees the continuation of the same anti-people's policies and the reinforcement of the basic objectives of the bourgeoisie. Le Pen does not cause any "fear for bourgeois democracy", it becomes the regulator of the overall reactionary shift and armoring against the internal enemy - people, it finally guarantees the overall systemic "stability", like Meloni in Italy who from being the secretary of the Fascist Youth is nowadays "a pillar of the EU institutions".

In the second round, the electoral tactics of the bourgeois parties and the New Popular Front averted the parliamentary dominance of the extreme Right, which, although it remained first in votes nationwide, came third in seats following the New Popular Front and Macron's party, which, thanks to the electoral agreement with the NFP, escaped the crushing defeat that was looming in the first round.

Large sections of the working class, the majority of the youth, immigrants with the right to vote, citizens of the overseas departments/colonies and many people with democratic sensibilities feel relieved that the Far Right did not manage to take the baton from Macron's extreme Centre and to advance the unpopular policy of the last years, worsening it even more with the characteristics of racism, nationalism, extreme conservatism and anti-communism. It is a victory for the popular mobilization, the Yellow Vests, the strikers against the dismantling of the social security system, the youth of the suburbs revolting against repression, the students defending public education, the marginalized people of flexible work and unemployment, the insurgents of New Caledonia and Guadeloupe.

However, as reality itself shows, the repeated electoral fronts of the reformist Left with bourgeois forces, combined with the electoral agreements of the second round with parties of the extreme Centre and the traditional Right, not only do not stop but inflame the influence of the Far Right, which wears the mask of an antisystemic force that fights against all. The more than doubling of the votes of Le Pen's party in relation to the 2022 parliamentary elections and its penetration into the popular strata, despite the abandonment of its more pro-people promises, leave no room for celebration.

Moreover, in the New Popular Front camp itself, the real winners are the systemic forces of the Socialists and Greens, who together with the Communist Party have governed by promoting anti-worker policies and supporting French imperialism within the EU and internationally. They significantly increased their seats compared to 2022, while Melanchon’s La France Insoumise/LFI saw its seats decline. Coupled with the fact that the Macron’s parliamentary rescue in the second round, all indications are that a reconstitution of the (extreme) centrist space will be attempted. The political forces of the NFP, the same ones that had formed the NUPES front in the previous parliamentary elections (which had been disbanded on the first day of its entry into the outgoing parliament, faced with the impasse of an agreement without principles and content) are shifting towards integrating and absorbing the social tremors.

But no "political geometry" seems for the moment capable of providing a solution to the political crisis in France, a fact that worries the ruling class, since a strong government is a precondition for the continuation and success of its attack on the workers and the popular strata. The anti-capitalist Left in France, having maintained its political independence for decades and with links to the working class, the youth and the marginalized strata of the cities and colonies, is a political force that has supported all social struggles, beyond the parliamentary bargaining and compromises of the reformist Left and the bureaucratic Unions. It was its presence that made an effort to give a political outlet to the expression of the anger of the people, and the continuation of its independence is necessary to transform this anger into an organized struggle that will stand as the only real danger to the system.

The political crisis is expected to continue in the run-up to the presidential elections. It is part of the contemporary crisis in Europe, part of the resistance and reaction to capitalist barbarism. The crucial point in these conditions is for the struggling people, the working class of France, the suburban poor, whose movements in recent years have shaken the pillar parties of the bourgeoisie (Socialists, Republicans, Macronists), to put their stamp on it. For the forces of the anti-capitalist communist Left, what is at stake is not an "anti-Right" Front in alliance with bourgeois forces. Our goal is a fighting front of workers' politics against the parties, institutions and governments of bourgeois politics as a whole, conscious that the far Right is an important form of its aggression against the working and popular strata. With a modern, anti-capitalist, communist Left, independent and subversive, developing a working class pole independent of bourgeois politics, which will express the interests of the working majority, block the way to the far Right and demolish the shaky bourgeois parties-pillars of the system.

NAR (New Left Current) for the Communist Liberation, July 2024