France in shock as conservative leader embraces far right

 

 "No leader of any mainstream French political party has ever previously embraced a possible alliance with Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, or its predecessor, the National Front. But across Europe, barriers to what was long regarded as the extreme nationalist right have been falling as those parties have adjusted their positions and as a broader consensus has formed that large-scale illegal immigration across a porous European Union border must be curbed.

The arguments of what are seen as cookie-cutter white male graduates from elite schools who run the country, and have since time immemorial, no longer wash with people struggling to get by in neighborhoods they feel have been transformed by uncontrolled immigration.

We need an alliance, while remaining ourselves,” Mr. Ciotti said. Later, asked by reporters at the party’s headquarters what had happened to the barrier that traditional parties in France usually erected around the far right, he demurred, saying the question was “totally out of step with the situation in France.”

“The French don’t see the cordon sanitaire,” he said, referring to what was sometimes called a “dam” against the extreme right. “They see diminished purchasing power, they see insecurity, they see the flood of migrants, and they want answers.”"

more in the report by ROGER COHEN & AURELIEN BREEDEN

France in shock as conservative leader embraces far right