Marine Le Pen's self-proclaimed Gaullist credentials have not stood up to the war in Gaza
For the 12 years she has embodied the French far right, Marine Le Pen has tenaciously pursued the same objective: claiming the legacy of Charles de Gaulle. For the heiress of a party whose ideological foundation was anti-Gaullism, the challenge lacks neither audacity nor electoral motives. Le Pen has quoted de Gaulle in debates during the presidential election campaign, sent representatives to put flowers on his grave at Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises on the anniversary of his death, dedicated speeches to him, and chosen authentic nostalgics of Gaullism such as Florian Philippot and Jean-Philippe Tanguy as lieutenants. In an article she wrote in June 2020 in the Revue politique et parlementaire, she praises the "great man" and claims to be the only one to defend his doctrine.
Often, this self-interested conviction is based on the foreign policy of de Gaulle, founder of the Fifth Republic, claiming to make it her own: that France should carry an independent voice, breaking away from the logic of blocs and speaking to all. In the Middle East, de Gaulle notably condemned Israel's expansionist policy during the Six-Day War in 1967, going against public opinion. Le Pen, however, has always been guided by the fight against radical Islam, ruling out certain regimes – such as Qatar or Saudi Arabia – from being potential partners.
Since the terrorist attacks of October 7, the leader of the far right has been offered a rare opportunity: to be the voice of the Gaullist-Mitterrandian openness to the Arab world, which in the current political landscape, only the Socialists and center-right veterans such as former prime minister Dominique de Villepin and the president of the Assemblée Nationale's Foreign Affairs Committee, Jean-Louis Bourlanges, seem to support. Eric Ciotti's right-wing Les Républicains, meanwhile, have aligned themselves with the Israeli government, continuing an Atlanticist trend that started under former president Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007. President Emmanuel Macron has supported Israel's defense, while sending signals to Arab capitals.
Cacophony
Le Pen could have taken advantage of this context. When she explained her position on the Israel-Hamas war on October 23, from the rostrum of the Assemblée, the leader of the far right pledged her strict adherence to Gaullist doctrine. She deplored the disappearance of France's role as a "flexible and creative intermediary": "Why is France's voice so despairing in this region in particular? It is because its diplomacy has lost sight of the need to maintain its independence, equidistance and constancy."
But these three principles hardly apply to Le Pen's supporters. Over the past month, cacophony and an alignment with Joe Biden's positions have prevailed – positions that are challenged even in the US State Department for his outspoken support for Benjamin Netanyahu. Le Pen's Rassemblement National (RN) party says it hopes for a two-state solution, but claims it is a pipe dream, while pretending to believe in peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in the near future. It has no reservations about Israel's intensive bombardment of Gaza. It advocates a halt to humanitarian aid to Palestinians and deems the Israeli army to be in compliance with international law. The party did vote in the European Parliament in favor of a "humanitarian pause," as part of a resolution that it tried – unsuccessfully – to make more hostile to the Palestinians. But the RN has seen Macron's call for a ceasefire as a betrayal of Israel. It is rare to see a supposedly "non-aligned" voice sound so much like Washington.
Between two electorally promising options – staging a break with anti-Semitism or donning the Gaullist costume – Le Pen chose the former. The urgency to break with the party's anti-Semitic past, at a time when the radical left is itself grappling with its ambiguity on the issue, had every reason to lead her to this strategic choice. But there is another, far more ideological reason why Le Pen is unable to return to de Gaulle's policy regarding Israel. While she herself deems the notion of a "clash of civilization" to be "false (...) erroneous (...) and dangerous," many in her party consider that this is indeed what is at play in Israel. "Defending Israel means defending a set of values," said RN spokesman Sébastien Chenu, a close ally to the three-time presidential candidate.
Old reflex
"Marine Le Pen, because her electorate has become politicized on the question of multiculturalism and the rejection of Islam, is following the evolution of the French far right in the broadest sense," said Olivier Schmitt, a specialist in the international vision of the far right and researcher at the University of Southern Denmark. "Like Netanyahu's government, she sees it as a Western civilization threatened by Islamic barbarians."
This is nothing new on the far right. In 1967, a section of French public opinion, unable to come to terms with Algerian independence, chose to "continue the war against the Arabs through Israel," as historian Yvan Gastaut wrote in 2005 in an article in the biannual scientific journal Cahiers de la Méditerranée (issue 71). Far-right leader Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour attended a demonstration in support of Israel. The far-right weekly Minute made no secret of the reasons behind this sudden interest in Zionism: "With the Arabs, only one policy is possible, and that is that of the club and the kick in the ass." At the time, Minute was employing someone who was selling compilations of songs from the Third Reich: Jean-Marie Le Pen, the father of Marine and founder of the party she now leads.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.