Why Fascism Is on the Rise in France: From Macron to Le Pen

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This book explains why the far right is on the rise in France and how Emmanuel Macron's rule is leading to a possible Le Pen victory. Recently, polls have indicated for the first time that a far right candidate could win the next French presidential election in 2027. Reactionary and racist ideologues are increasingly present in the French media. Fascist violent groups are gaining ground and confidence in the streets, and assaulting more people. How did we get here
Ugo Palheta shows that the fascist threat is rooted in the triple radicalization - neoliberal, authoritarian and racist - of the French ruling class, and its incapacity to win the consent of a large majority of the people. As a result, and as a factor of an interminable political crisis, this radicalisation has fostered the rise of a new type of fascist threat. The author therefore argues for a renaissance of anti-fascism, capable of leading the fight against the far right, and against the triple offensive that is encouraging its rise.

Reviews

Why Fascism is on the Rise in France is an audacious, urgent, precise and often terrifying intervention. Shaking off the encrustations of orthodoxy, the greasy equivocations of mainstream anti-populism, and the crudely polemical or creakily mechanistic conceptions of fascism inherited from parts of the Marxist tradition, Palheta restores rigour to antifascist thought. In underscoring 'fascisation' as a process immanent to hegemonic collapse and democratic decay, he renews Marxist theory and gives us a practical orientation in the battles to come. This is essential reading for everyone in the crosshairs of the new fascism, and everyone who wants to fight back. -- Richard Seymour, author of Disaster Nationalism
Palheta's book is a rigorous and illuminating guide into the laboratories of the French Far Right and into the socio-economic conjuncture that has boosted the fortunes of fascism. Efforts to understand the trajectories and possibilities of fascism will gain much from engaging with his work and testing the framework he has forged to study and counter new forms of authoritarianism and reaction in France and beyond. -- Alberto Toscano

Author Bio

Ugo Palheta is currently a lecturer at the University of Lille and the co-editor of the online journal Contretemps, the main radical left journal in France . His research has focused in particular on class and racial inequalities, the social trajectories of young people from working-class backgrounds and changes in education systems. For several years he has been working on the rise of the far right and the issue of fascism: he has published several books on the subject and hosts a podcast devoted to the issues of fascism and anti-fascism. Why Fascism Is on the Rise in France has repositioned the question of fascism at the centre of intellectual debate in France.