CORNELL UNIVERSITY MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICEDec. 15, 2015
Marine Le Pen is gone, but only until next time
Newswise — Regional elections in France ended with the defeat in the second round of voting of the National Front - a right-wing, anti-European party that has recently gathered supporters for its nationalistic and anti-migrants stances. Mabel Berezin, a sociologist at Cornell University, author and expert on France and European politics says it would be a mistake to consider this defeat as a body blow to the National Front or its leader Marine Le Pen, whose concession speech jump-started her 2017 presidential campaign.
Bio: www.soc.cornell.edu/faculty/berezin.html
Berezin says:
“The French National Front failed to win the leadership of any of the six regions that it carried in the first round of the regional elections. But, it would be a mistake to take this as a body blow to the party.
“The National Front is gone until next time, and next time is going to be a presidential election. Marine Le Pen used her concession speech to jump-start her campaign - arguing that the battles of the future will be between ‘globalists and nationalists’.
“Many factors went into the National Front’s defeat, including strategic voting and an extremely high turnout. Politicians from the socialist and the republican parties came together, and engaged in cross-over voting to ensure that the National Front would not win. Prime Minister Manuel Valls even warned that there would be ‘civil war’ in France if the National Front managed to win any regions.
“The main parties’ strategy worked, but there is a general recognition among the left and classic right that something must be done to combat the rise of the National Front and it must be done quickly.
“This is not an exclusively French battle, it is a European battle—and the battle has been waging for a while and there is no immediate end in sight.”
For interviews contact:Rebecca ValliO: 607-255-7701M: 607-793-1025[email protected]
Cornell University has television, ISDN and dedicated Skype/Google+ Hangout studios available for media interviews.
RSS