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.

    • Zos_KiaEnglish
      1•6 months 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.