The French presidential elections in 2027 are the next big event after the midterms in the US in November. The big question hanging over this election is whether Marine Le Pen becomes president of France or someone else.

The stakes are high. With Le Pen in the Élysée Palace the extreme right will have more power than it had since maréchal Pétain’s government from 1940 to 1944.

Le Pen’s agenda is anti-European, anti-internationalist, conservative, pro-Russian, anti-lgbtqia+, anti-environmental, and a lot more. The European project, the war in Ukraine and the defence of Europe stand to lose a lot. She is not a right wing politician in the vein of Margaret Thatcher, she is not just "very conservative", she represents a right wing France that defines France mostly in terms of what it has (supposedly) lost: independence (to the damned European Union), prestige, culture, security, opportunity, religion, traditions, history (France's "real" history is supposed to have been rewritten by "woke" historians and poltitical scientists, in particular those of the perfide SciencesPo in Paris).

The loss of colonies can not be too openly regretted, but nostalgia for Algeria is everywhere in the Rassemblement Nationale, her party. Just as a certain forgiveness for marshal Pétain, who ought to be celebrated as the hero of Verdun while the "other" thing, the collaboration with nazi-Germany during the Second World War, needs to be overlooked. While Marine Le Pen herself tries to distance herself and her party from too much enthusiasm over Pétain, admiration for the marshal flares up regularly among the party faithful, indicating that the ideas of Le Pen père are not as dead as Marine wants. Historian Michel Winock (I admit, of the dreaded SciencesPo) is very clear about this: "le RN a bel et bien un passé pétainiste, que la leader du parti d'extrême-droite n'a jamais véritablement désavoué"¹.

Currently Le Pen is ahead in the race, and the recent protests and riots give her law and order image a definite edge. But, in politics overnight is a lifetime, and the first round of the elections is on April 18th, so there is time for the left and center, who are quite invisible at the moment, to catch up.

Notes

1. Challenges.fr, Pétainisme: Marine Le Pen et le RN n’ont jamais désavoué Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Domécy s/ Cure, 19 X 2026).