Immigration even, but without exaggeration. Alfonso Fernandez Manueco in his investment speech in Castile and Leon Cortes on Monday outlined some ideas on how to organize immigration: “Always legal, orderly, with a clear call for entry into the labor market and full integration. Respect for European laws, values and the freedoms of society that unites them. ” Not many parties are known to claim the opposite, an immigration system without respect for the law. Nor are there foreigners who do not want to work and whose priority is to break the law. As for values, an agreement is more difficult to reach, as the Manieko Agreement may differ from the agreement of many Spaniards.
Clearly, his views now do not differ much from those of Marine Le Pen, who in the French presidential election campaign decided to remove the most harmful and xenophobic parties from his party’s program. He does not oppose all systemic immigration, though he still sees it as a cultural threat, nor does he reject dual nationality for people born abroad, an idea that the ultra-right has held for many years.
His position was assessed as more pragmatic and conditioned by state spending, by a clever way of flattering oneself to the electorate. It wants to reduce social assistance for foreigners in order to reduce social spending in France and thus reduce taxes. For Le Pen, everything starts and ends with economics. This was an important component of his party’s attempt to whitewash the image.
The strategy was fruitful. He received the best result from the far right with 23.7% of the vote, which will allow him to run against Emmanuel Macron in the April 24 presidential election. If you add Eric Zemor’s 7% to the xenophobic debate, he’s starting a two-week campaign from a solid position.
The launch of the second round campaign in France coincided with Maniuko’s investment in Castile and Le .n, which has been agreed with Vox. The calendar performed at a popular party. The stage for coalition governments with the far right is opening up in this region at a time when Le Pen is threatening Europe with the possibility of France having an ultra-right president in two of the EU’s most important countries. .
The comparison between Spain and France is a starting point. In the French presidential and legislative elections, the dual-round electoral system forced parties to position themselves after the first round and at the same time was an obstacle to the aspirations of a national group formerly known as the National Front. In a system like Spain, the proportional distribution of seats – in favor of the winning party as amended by D’Hond’s law – pushes the parties to negotiate the formation of a government. The political value of an agreement with one party and not with others always exists.
After an apparent defeat in the second round of 2017, Le Pen tried to make his message more assimilated to public opinion, was not to change ideas about immigration, but to talk less about it and the right to monopolize his image. His priority has become economics. He softened Euroscepticism and rejected the most radical ideas such as leaving the eurozone. He continued to attack the economic policies of the EU Conservatives and Liberals with the intention of denouncing France as no longer a prosperous country. The deindustrialization of large areas of the country, a process that began years ago, played in his favor.
In his 2017 campaign, he used Macron’s profile – a former banker with liberal ideas and typical of the Parisian establishment – to condemn the urban elites who despise France in its inner and small cities. Under the influence of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, it doubled. When Zemor invaded the election with even more racist language, Le Pen was not restrained and continued to talk about economics even as his number in the election was reduced.
“I will be the president of real life and, above all, your purchasing power,” he said at the rally. Inflation and rising energy prices helped him and increased Macron insecurity. The president chose to cut gas and fuel taxes, but many voters did not forget his arrogant nature and blamed him for his lack of interest in the problems of the French, who are not rich.
In Spain, Vox sought to establish himself as a working class defender. Some media outlets from 2019 say that this wish may be fulfilled or has already been fulfilled, which is quite far from reality. What Vox achieved was to retain a large proportion of working-class voters who had previously voted for the PP in some regions.
The Madrid regional elections confirmed that Vox did not increase support in the low-income areas of the capital or only did so by showing this. You just have to listen to Vox politicians like the Espinosa de los Monteros-Monasterio couple to understand that it is hard to believe that they can reach the working class electorate. The elections in Andalusia will make it possible to study this trend in another community.
A study by two researchers at the University of Lisbon found that voters at Vox and the Portuguese party Chega are not losers as a result of economic globalization because of their income levels. If anything, from Cultural globalization, Understood as a series of ideas about women’s rights and the LGTBI collective, or climate change, supported by the majority of the European community and which is causing great disgust among ultra-right-wing voters.
The Conservative Republican nominee said he would vote for Macron in two weeks. The decision of Valerie Pekres was presented as a cordon sanitary against the extreme right. It is clear that a policy that failed to reach 5% of the vote will be heard by its constituents. In an attempt to distinguish himself, Pecrese went so far as to convince the racist idea of the Great Substitution, a conspiracy theory held by far-rightists.
The use of ultra-right vocabulary against foreigners is a widespread trend in some European conservatives, generally without much success. It only serves to give more social credibility to messages in which ultra-right parties feel more comfortable.
The Macron administration itself has spent these years trying to attract Le Pen voters. The highlight was the debate in February 2021 between Le Pen and Home Secretary Gerald Darmanin, who wanted to present himself as tough as his opponent. “He is starting to show weakness. He still needs to take vitamins. He does not want to legislate on religion and says that Islam is not even a problem,” Darmanin said.
The results of the first round in France show that a tough appearance like the extreme right is not a guarantee of your voter victory. According to the polls, Macron is two to three points ahead of Le Pen in the second round (five years ago he took 32 points from him). The president must now decide which candidate he wants to be re-elected for. It will be up to him to change his suit to attract 21.9% of the electorate backed by left-wing Jean-Luc Melenchon.
Source: El Diario
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