WASHINGTON, April 29 — To this American, the political news from France carries a whiff of the 1930s. After decades of fearing the European left, we suddenly confront the ugly face of the right. The results of the first round of French presidential elections earlier this month showed all the old pre-World War II elements: anti-Semitism, hatred of minorities, armies of the unemployed voting their bitterness at a tired political elite they accuse of betrayal.
PAY ATTENTION HERE. The Fifth Republic, created by the great Charles de Gaulle, is beginning to act like the Third Republic: that weak, defeatist, hopelessly cynical republic that fell so quickly to Adolf Hitler.
The face on the poster is that of Jean-Marie Le Pen, rightist candidate of the ominously named “National Front.” Le Pen garnered 17 percent of the vote, second only to incumbent President Jacques Chirac, who got just under 20 percent. The two face each other in the May 5 run-off.
Le Pen’s politics (which are strong), not his chances for victory (which are weak), loom as the issue here. Why would French voters, famous for their bourgeois practicality, cast so many ballots for someone who (a) cannot win and (b) speaks so bluntly against immigration and the street crime he connects with it?
