In an issue of <\/span>Esprit<\/span><\/i> focusing on the far-right, Nicolas Massol traces the evolution of the Rassemblement National (RN) over the last decade. What is the RN now, he asks, \u2018a far-right party that is hiding its true nature\u2019, or a \u2018patchwork of nationalism, radical right-wing thought, populism, pragmatism, demagogy, and even some elements of progressivism?\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n In 2013, the nationalist-racist writer Dominique Venner framed his suicide as an act necessary to shake the French from their lethargy and fight against the \u2018great replacement\u2019. When Marine Le Pen tweeted her admiration, no-one was surprised. But the ensuing decade has seen a U-turn: the party now rejects any affiliation with far-right figures, keeps those with links to violence or radicalism out of the spotlight, and gives star billing to new recruits from traditional parties.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Front National used demonization as a strategy for decades, exploiting its position as outsider. But the RN (renamed in 2018) now prefers a theatre of (partial) de-demonization, in which Le Pen \u2018now plays opposite \u00c9ric Zemmour\u2019. With 88 deputies in the National Assembly since 2022, the RN\u2019s new goal is to blend in. Its political strategy is \u2018constructive\u2019; since 2022, it has presented only consensus-building proposals, none of which relate to immigration or \u2018<\/span>pr\u00e9f\u00e9rence nationale\u2019<\/span><\/i> \u2013 though this doctrine of giving French citizens priority for jobs, social assistance, and housing remains RN policy.<\/span><\/p>\n Yet despite the repositioning, the networks of the far-right are still interwoven and essential to the party. One example is e-Politic, the RN\u2019s communications provider, and a feeder organization for the party. The RN keeps it at arm\u2019s length due to the radical politics of its shareholders, but cannot cut ties with it.\u00a0 The last decade has thus been marked by incoherence: \u2018Steeped in a far-right ideology that they are no longer allowed to openly embrace, RN activists now belong to a party without a real common culture.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n Adam L\u00e9vrier challenges the euphemistic description of contemporary far-right media outlets in France as \u2018pluralist \u2026 spaces that respect all opinions\u2019. It is a denial, he argues, of the continuity of a \u2018nationalist and xenophobic journalistic tradition\u2019 that began in the Belle Epoque and flourished until the end of the Second World War.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n L\u00e9vrier examines France\u2019s far-right media, focusing on the empire of tycoon Vincent Bollor\u00e9, which includes CNews and since earlier this year the <\/span>Journal du dimanche <\/span><\/i>(JDD), now with the far-right journalist Geoffroy Lejeune at the helm. Like the historical far-right press, these outlets see themselves as defending \u2018a France under threat \u2026 corrupted by the presence of the enemy within\u2019. The scapegoating of the \u2018unassimilable foreigner\u2019 continues too, with the rolling news channels constantly repeating \u2018their accusations against Muslims and communities of foreign origin\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0At the <\/span>JDD<\/span><\/i>, Lejeune infuses every issue with his \u2018identitarian obsessions\u2019. Echoing the \u2018linguistic excesses\u2019 of the 1920s and \u201930s, today\u2019s far-right press calls into question democratic institutions, portraying them as \u2018corrupt elites, under foreign influence, and incapable of defending the national interest\u2019. A polemical style and \u2018a taste for conflict and outrage\u2019 have become its defining features, with centrist and leftwing guests on CNews attacked in an \u2018almost ritualized manner\u2019. Yet, despite this tone of violence, these platforms deny the influence of any \u2018far-right\u2019 ideology.<\/span><\/p>\n But this may not be the case for much longer. \u00c9ric Zemmour, a key figure at CNews, has never hidden his fascination with notables of the historical far-right. His \u2018radicality and candour\u2019 have won him supporters and made him \u2018a pioneer and a model for a generation of journalists who today burn with desire to follow his example\u2019. The new team at the <\/span>JDD<\/span><\/i>, some of whom are particularly anchored in the far-right, are indebted to Zemmour for bringing a long-reviled discourse in from the cold.<\/span><\/p>\n The far-right is on the rise in Europe \u2013 but are these parties and their supporters fascist? It\u2019s a futile debate, argues Pierre Zaoui<\/span>.<\/span><\/i> More fruitful is to recognize the \u2018fascization\u2019 that has been at work in European societies and beyond since the 1980s. This process, like \u2018racization\u2019\u2013 a \u2018social process that constructs the Other\u2019\u2013 operates through \u2018language, bodies [and] flows\u2019, and Zaoui offers \u2018practical lessons\u2019 to stem the tide.<\/span><\/p>\n In a society undergoing fascization, language transforms in an \u2018impersonal and almost autonomous\u2019 way. At first, it is \u2018babbling and inchoate\u2019 but, as it spreads through our social spaces, fed by media, rumours, and the discourse of powerful businesspeople, it takes shape. Eventually, the \u2018terrible fascist language\u2019 emerges. This distinguishes between \u2018friends and enemies, them and us, here and there\u2019 and, through \u2018the use <\/span>ad nauseam<\/span><\/i> of a vocabulary of extermination\u2019, legitimizes violence against the Other.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The signifiers of this violence as much as the act itself produce a physical thrill. This, often secret, <\/span>jouissance<\/span><\/i> in exterminating the weak flows through our societies, \u2018through all social bodies\u2019, touching everyone. To avoid submersion, we must build barriers: electoral, when we have the right to vote; linguistic, when we refuse the lexicon of extermination; and bodily barriers to beat back the fascists \u2018in the street, in the football stadiums, or in Ukraine\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Unlike the fight against fascism, which involves arms and is a fight to the death, that against fascization is \u2018more multiform, and less violent\u2019. It requires each person to root it out of themselves at the same time as they oppose it in others.<\/span><\/p>\n Published in cooperation with CAIRN International Edition<\/a>, translated and edited by Cadenza Academic Translations<\/em>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.eurozine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/eypriit23-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBack to the \u201930s<\/b><\/h2>\n
Fascization<\/b><\/h2>\n
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