El resultado de las elecciones en Francia

Guy Sorman:

In hindsight, the 2012 French presidential election could well be remembered not so much for Hollande’s victory and the triumph of normalcy, but as the decisive step in populist parties’ long march to power in Europe. In the first round of the French presidential election, the far left, a motley collection of anti-capitalists and radical environmentalists garnered 14% of the vote. On the far right, Marine Le Pen’s National Front, the political heir of French fascism, won 18%, the party’s best result ever.

In other words, one-third of French voters are now attracted to candidates with extreme ideologies that share an anti-liberal rejection of the euro, capitalism, and globalization. Both sides find their roots in an idealized past: the French Revolution and its egalitarian promise for the far left, and the French Empire and its domination of the world’s non-white peoples for the far right.