The Brief – ¡No pasarán!

“¡No pasarán!” or “They shall not pass” is an iconic slogan used in the context of leftist forces fighting fascism. During the Spanish Civil War, Dolores Ibárruri Gómez (“Pasionaria”), a member of the Communist Party of Spain, pronounced her famous “No pasarán” speech on 18 July 1936.

“¡No pasarán!” was then also used by British anti-fascists during the 1936 Battle of Cable Street on Sunday, 4 October 1936.

It was a clash between the Metropolitan Police sent to protect a march by members of the British Union of Fascists, led by Sir Oswald Mosley, and various anti-fascist demonstrators, including local trade unionists, communists, anarchists, British Jews, and socialist groups.

A huge crowd in Paris chanted ¡No pasarán! on the night of 7 to 8 July 2024, after it became clear that the mobilisation of the French left had defeated the far right’s plans to become the first political force in the country and gain an absolute majority in the National Assembly.

The left (Nouveau Front populaire, including La France Insoumise, the Socialist Party, The Ecologists, and the French Communist Party) won 182 seats. President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance Ensemble (including his Renaissance, the Democratic Movement, and Horizons) got 168, and Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement national (RN) and allies 143, interior ministry data cited by Le Monde showed.

Instead of finishing first and claiming the right to form a government, the RN finished third, which means that it will stay in opposition, and that was a major surprise.

No matter how difficult it will be to form a government, this was a triumph of the “Front républicain”, a French political term born in the 1950s when a leftist coalition sought to end the Algeria war (1954-1962).

It was “Front républicain” that ended the “Fourth Republic” in 1958. This constitutional construction was designed to ensure post-war reconstruction while keeping at bay the powerful French Communist Party (PCF) in the Cold War.

In the “Fifth Republic,” put in place by Charles de Gaulle, who became its first president, the expression “Front républicain” was again used to constitute a coalition of government parties against Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front, the predecessor of RN, notably for the presidential election of 2002.

All the parties represented in Parliament called for Jacques Chirac to vote against Le Pen in the second round. This proved effective since Jean-Marie Le Pen garnered the same percentage of votes in both rounds, 17%, while Chirac won with 82%.

I still have strong memories of how my French friends with sympathies for the left overcame their instinct to abstain and instead pinched their noses and cast their votes for Chirac, a conservative.

The turnout at that time was 79.71%, which is not unusual for French presidential elections.

Voter turnout at yesterday’s legislative elections was significantly lower. However, according to provisional results, at 67%, it represents an increase of almost 20 percentage points compared with the previous elections in 2022.

This means that despite the short time the parties had to campaign, the mobilisation of French voters gave the left a significant advantage.

European elections are held under the proportional model, while legislative elections are held under a convoluted, byzantine, two-round voting system. We should not compare apples and oranges, but the difference in the results is huge.

In the European elections one month ago, the French left had secured only seven MEPs in the S&D group and another six in the Left group out of 79 French MEPs.

And that same left, to which the ecologists and the communists were hastily added, was the surprise winner 28 days later.

Is this history repeating itself – the left becoming a bulwark against fascism, time and again? Is fascism such a threat again?

Some would argue that the Rassemblement national, which abandoned its old name, National Front, to sound less aggressive, is not a fascist party. In any case, most of their voters aren’t – many of them have previously voted for “mainstream” parties.

Others would say that in its DNA, deep down, the party of the Le Pen family represents the other France, the monarchist France, Vichy France, that their leaders represent wartime collaboration, anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial, racism, and climate change denial.

That power in the hands of the RN would mean a rollback of human rights achievements, economic collapse, and the country’s isolation on the international stage.

Some will further say that Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise is no better than Rassemblement National in many ways.

But one step at a time, please. The RN was stopped, and this is what matters now.

Maybe this is even good for them so they can prepare for the 2027 presidential election without the burden of having been in office during an uneasy cohabitation with Macron. Marine Le Pen said their victory has “only been delayed, but the tide is rising”.

In the meantime, France risks becoming ungovernable unless Mélenchon, who actually won, agrees to step aside. But judging by his first comments, he seems keener to try forming a government.

As the French say, affaire à suivre.

The Roundup

A new far-right group, the Patriots for Europe, was formed in the European Parliament on Monday after swallowing their predecessor, Identity and Democracy (ID), and unifying enough lawmakers on the right and far-right side to become the third-largest group.

Socialist and leftist politicians from across Europe expressed their satisfaction about the defeat of far-right Rassemblement national (RN) in the second round of the French elections on Sunday, pointing to the power of unity between leftist forces.

The French far-right party Rassemblement national (RN) is set to join the “Patriots for Europe” group formed in the European Parliament by Viktor Orbán and his allies, several sources within the party and Italy’s Lega confirmed to Euractiv on Sunday.

The Patriots for Europe, seeking to form a political group in the European Parliament, will overtake Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s ECR, Matteo Salvini, who is aligning himself more closely with the new group, said on Sunday

Hungary promises to be an ‘honest broker’ in the presidency of the Council of the EU, amid concerns over impartiality, focusing on peace in Ukraine, combating illegal migration, family policies, and boosting competitiveness through streamlined approval processes.

Look out for…

• Commission President Ursula von der Leyen receives Dutch PM Dick Schoof on Monday.
• Informal meeting of competitiveness ministers (Internal market and industry) on Monday-Tuesday.

Views are the author’s

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic/Alice Taylor]