France’s National Rally has sought to style itself a defender of women’s rights — partly by attacking its traditional bogeyman: immigration.

France’s National Rally has sought to style itself a defender of women’s rights — partly by attacking its traditional bogeyman: immigration.

Europe’s far-right voters have long been predominantly men, but French women are now bucking that trend ahead of a high-stakes election that could usher in France’s first far-right government in recent history.

Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration National Rally is tipped to win the most votes in a two-round snap election on June 30 and July 7 that could crush the liberal centrists of President Emmanuel Macron, and women are increasingly driving her party’s surging political fortunes as it seeks to position itself in the mainstream.

On EU election day this month, the National Rally came first with a stunning 31 percent of the French vote, up from 23 percent in the 2019 EU election.

The most eye-catching aspect of this swing to the far right concerned women voters, according to an election-day poll that OpinionWay carried out for the Les Echos newspaper.

  • rowdy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    257·
    6 days ago

    I’m not trying to perpetuate “Arab bad”. And my experience is anecdotal but that doesn’t mean you can correct - it was still very much real.

    • French kids my age had no issues with me. Some were weirdly enamored by me. Some older French folk were rude about my nationality, no doubt. But never the pure, cruel, hatred I experienced from some North Africans kids. (I say French kids but this included a lot of Western European ethnicities whose families immigrated and integrated with the French culture already. An admittedly much easier task given they already share similar cultures.)
    • Yes, mostly true. But since you’re not me, and did not live my life, you wouldn’t know I was attending the French equivalent of ESL classes with some first geneneration North Africans (I apologize I can’t be more specific.) They were some of the meanest and we couldn’t even speak a shared language.
    • If your point is that immigration is not a problem until the 2nd/3rd generation, what other solution is there than to stop it at the 1st generation until the rest of it can get sorted? I’m not pretending to have a solution, someone much smarter than me will need to figure that one. But what I do know is people are getting hurt by people that weren’t there before. A tale as old as time.

    Also as a side note. 1 in 3 is not good enough. Most people are risk adverse, give them 33% odds of something positive and they’ll tell you to shove it.

    • FlorianSimon@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      121·
      6 days ago

      As the person who replied to you rightfully said, the persons you decry are mostly French, you said so yourself. The people you want to be “locked out” of the country cannot be deported - which country would they go to if they’re French and French only?

      Your original point is wrong. Controlling immigration will do nothing to solve the insecurity RN voters perceive, because the North Africans they hate so much will still remain in France.

    • Zos_Kia@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
      32·
      6 days ago

      Oh i didn’t mean to correct your experience but rather the political take you extracted from it. Your personal experience in grade school doesn’t represent a systemic problem. The population we’re talking about here (north african young immigrants fresh off the boat who need remedial linguistic classes) is, what, a few thousand people a year ? You don’t close a country’s borders just because you can’t handle a few thousand unruly adolescents.

      My other point is that, while religious conservatism is a real danger to modern society, it is not driven by immigrants who have few resources and are primarily motivated by their own survival. It is driven by well established people who already have the French nationality and are comfortable enough to afford being “rebels” to the system. It’s also not specific to islam - have you seen what Christians are up to these days ? Have you seen what Jews are up to ? Current news seem to indicate that the Abrahamic-minded are not taking kindly to the 3rd Millenium.

      Also as a side note. 1 in 3 is not good enough. Most people are risk adverse, give them 33% odds of something positive and they’ll tell you to shove it.

      That wasn’t my point. My point is that the majority of immigrants come for study or work and they integrate with no issues.

      The people the RN accuses of not integrating are French people with French passports and it is their fucking god-given right to not “integrate” with the culture around them. I was a nerdy vegan kid in a village of rugby players, hunters and delicatessen producers. I never fit in with that peasant culture - should my nationality be put into question ? No ? Then why is the standard different when it’s a kid from arab descent ?

      They are French citizens they don’t owe any allegiance to any ideology or way of life and that’s one of the pillars upon which this country was built. They wake up and go to work like me, they pay taxes like me, when they’re caught speeding they get a ticket like me. They bring their kids to the same school where i bring mine. They complain about trains being late and the administration being incompetent. Let’s leave them the fuck alone alright ? We’re living together just fine.