The French Far Right’s Awkward Dance Around Trump

Marseille, France-Mariten, a 26-year-old teacher in the southern French town of Carpensras, supports the Patriotic Rally of the National Rally (RN). He voted in favor of Marine Le Pen, the head of the party, in both rounds of the 2022 presidential elections as well as the RN candidate in the first round of the legislative elections last year.

When it comes to US President Donald Trump, he has more mixed feelings.

“I appreciate this iron will to show that he is the person who leads the world and that no one else will tell him what to do or what to think about it or how the United States should act,” said Martin, who asked not to reveal his last name for professional reasons. “It is the type of strong man we would like to see in France, a person who says he protects America first and thinks about America first.”

On the other hand, Trump’s actual policies have Martin less enthusiastic – in particular, his definitions and huge discounts for the public sector. “I cannot agree with everything he did because he has direct consequences on us and our companies in France,” he said. “If the French state applies the same policies it provides, it will be very difficult, very brutal, not social enough.”

Martin doubts highlights an embarrassing topic for the French right, as the country is mired in Trump’s media coverage before its 2027 presidential race. RN and its ideological allies in France participate in many common reasons with the right of the United States-understanding, as well, dream of seizing the presidency through handrails against immigration, harnessing cultural grievances, pledging to restore the wounded sense of national pride, The traditional conservatives and voters of the working class are calm.

However, according to a survey in March, four out of five French people have a negative vision of the American president, including 57 percent of self -described RN sympathy. Now, the Far French right should also deal with Trump’s image of polarization among voters who seek to fill it.

Le Pen once It yearns for the American president to be associated. The day after Trump’s first victory in 2016, she congratulated the “American people” for being “free” and announced his “good news for our country”. In January 2017, even at Trump Tower in New York and waited in the building in the hope of meeting the elected president. Although the individual person has never happened, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon spoke at a party conference for RN-known as the National Front-Lille in the following year, and the attendees were told that they were part of an international movement against “globalization” and encouraged them to wear accusations of racism and Xenophobia devices “as a mastery of honor.” Recently in 2021, two RN members visited the European parliament, where they met a group of Maga militants in Congress that included at the time. Matt Gitz and MP Paul Josar.

During Trump’s second term, RN took a different game. Le Pen’s tweet congratulating Trump the day after his election was free of any praise for his agenda, while her limited general assessments of his administration were decisive: in March, she considered that Washington moved to salvage aid to Kiev “cruel”, and in July, she criticized the European Union’s trade deal as “political, economic and treatment.” Luis Aluriot, the first Vice President of RN, attended the installation of Trump, but not before publishing the evacuation of the responsibility, which warned of his existence “none of the forms” of the American president.

Meanwhile, the party’s single prominent attempt to publicly link itself to the American Republicans since Trump’s return to Washington in a disaster. In February, the young RN president, Jordan Bartella, abolished his appearance at the conservative political work conference after Banon concluded his speech with a Nazi serpent. The party’s founder, Marine’s father, Jean -Marie Le Pen, may have given “details” of the history of World War II, but for RN today, Bannon’s provocation was considered a very far move.

For RN, the episode showed the risk of publicly associated with American conservatives while maintaining commitment to “canceling the commitment”, which is a largely successful strategy that Marin Le Pen did to reduce the extremist roots of her party and a aura project of moderation. During the Trump era, Republicans are testing the boundaries of the acceptable speech – but during the reign of Le Pen, who served as the president of RN from 2011 to 2021 and organized a change in his name in 2018, the party sought to prove the voters specifically.

In an interview with Foreign policySebastian Cheno, an influential parliamentarian in RN, who sits in the 12 -year -old executive office, admitted that there are “rapprochement points” between his party and Trump, pointing to the “patriotism” of the American gear and the unwillingness to make concessions to the opponents. However, he focused primarily on their differences. “Trump is a more liberal economic person – we cannot simply transfer his program to France,” said Cheno. “It is more conservative, or anyway, his entourage, including the way they look at religion. We are not a conservative party. We have voted to allocate abortion rights in the constitution. We do not want to review the gay marriage, although we are not close.”

According to Chino, Trump’s communication style is a double -edged sword between RN voters. “What I think makes Trump attractive to our eligibility is the” direct “style that he has … because it is separated from the template and the type of political righteousness here.” “However, what people like less is the way it is expressed. There is a kind of outrageous, even vulgar to speak.”

When she was pressed to explain the reason for RN cleared his audio support for the American president, Cheno referred to Trump’s record in his post. “We have seen what it was in power, and we saw his transgressions, especially his refusal to recognize the results of the 2020 elections.”

Arnoud Stephen, She did not buy a former consultant in Le Pen during her 2022 campaign RN’s leadership theory that Trump’s attack on American democracy. “They never care about January 6,” he said.

According to Stéphan, who is now a television news commentator, RN’s move to communicate public support for Trump can be explained by the party’s concerns about its exposure to the French media. “It is about fear of appearing ridiculous by his association with a person who is constantly mocking everyone in the media -” orange president, “haircuts, all impressions – embarrassed from that,” he said. “They are uncomfortable with the chances of responsibility for the surrealist personality that is Donald Trump.”

Stéphan, RN learned to study it after trying to build relations with Vladimir Putin-a sermon that was now crowned with a 2017 for the year 2017 to shake hands with the Russian dictator in Moscow. Like the failed meeting with Trump that year, the meeting was led by RN leaders who are determined to coach their party as one of the specialized statesmen. “There is this desire for the desire to say,” Well, I am not a loser, I do not want to get out of the picture with world leaders, because when I am president, I will be with all these people. “

Of course, Putin’s meeting has caused bad opposite results. It was not only about less political benefits in France, according to Stephen, but it became a great responsibility after Russia launched the full invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which led to the generation of doubts about RN loyalties in addition to this renewed path again.

Stefan has argued that the RN mania in his image pushes his general positions more than any other factor – and with early opinion polls that may indicate that the Le Pen party may seriously compete for the presidency in 2027, the heavy party weights are terrified of the alienation of potential voters. After being convicted in March due to the embezzlement of the European Union’s funds, which prevented her from running for public positions until 2030, it may not be the same as the candidate. But Barilla is ready for condensation if Le Pen’s trial, is scheduled to start in January, in her favor.

“The RN reference frame today is less than politics or ideology – it relates to public relations,” said Stephen.

RN Other discomfort in the far right of the French did not prevent the American president. Journalists and critics regularly express their support for Trump’s policies on the outlets owned by conservative billionaire Vincent Bolore, including CNEWS and the weekly magazine JDNEWS. It is not among the prominent prominent right -wing politicians outside RN to praise Trump. The list includes Marion Marchel, the daughter of Le Pen’s sister who heads his little party, Identité-Libértés, who is more economically liberal and socially conservative than RN; éric ciotti, the former oath of Les Répuplicains, who was expelled from the party after trying to form an alliance with RN in the legislative elections last year; Éric Zemmour, one of the two guerrillas convicted several times from the hate speech that established the Recixête party and got 7 percent of the votes in the 2022 presidential race, runs to the right of Loop.

In an interview with Foreign policySarah Navo, a single member of Reconquête, admitted that Trump’s “style” could extinguish French voters, but praised his re -election.

Navo said that Trump’s return is “a political shock in the sense of the best word.” “Trump sheds light on what our people are waiting for everywhere in the West and what the French leaders no longer dare to say: to defend their borders, their industry, and their people. Our political class speaks about the environment, diversity, and inclusion, but they refuse to act with concrete materials: concrete security, public religion, and technology. Doctrines.”

Knafo, who traveled to Washington in January for Trump’s inauguration, criticized Le Pen’s attempt to remove herself from the American president. She said about her changing general position on her opponent: “It is very revealing.” “Trump has not changed. It is his former supporters who retreated. The French understand it more and more: when you want to” cancel “yourself, you end up until it becomes uncomfortable.”

Knafo may have a point, at least when it comes to a share of the difficult right-after all, the same ballot boxes that appear widely of spreading with Trump in France also reveal that an inaccurate share of advanced right-wing voters feel differently. Most voters may be their heads in terror from Washington, but some sympathizers with each other sympathize watching the scene and gesture.

In the last camp, people like Meniker Amar, 54, sit and work in the Perpigenan Cultural Services Department, the largest city in France ruled by RN. “I love his instrument. I love his health,” the activist has long been devoted to celebrating the memory HarkisThe Algerians who fought alongside France during the Algerian war said about Trump. “At least, he tells her as it is.”