The big loser in the French elections was not the far right. It's true that if it hadn't been for the spurious agreements between the New Popular Front and the Macronists, the National Regroupment would have grown even more. But the result of the second round is not exactly a victory for the left.
After Marine Le Pen's RN led the first round of the elections, the leaders of the NFP fell into the trap of the French press and Emmanuel Macron, abandoning numerous candidates of their own to increase the chances of the neoliberal right linked to the Renaissance party beating the far right.
The French big bourgeoisie called for a "republican front" to create a "cordon sanitaire" made up of the left and the neoliberal right in order to prevent a landslide victory for the RN, which led to agreements in around 220 constituencies for the candidate with supposedly the least chance of winning the RN to abandon the race in favour of the candidate with the greatest chance. Except that most of the abandonments were by the NFP so that Macron's allies could beat Le Pen's allies, even though the NFP came second in the first round, far ahead of Macron's coalition.
The rivals of the far right were relieved with the results, as the parliament is now pulverised and not dominated by the RN. But they missed the opportunity to bury the Macronist right, i.e. the traditional neoliberal right, which in recent years has been paving the way for fascism by applying a policy increasingly similar to that advocated by Le Pen.
In fact, the ruling right-wing coalition lost 82 seats in the National Assembly compared to the last elections. It lost a third of its deputies. The Republicans, also of the traditional neoliberal right, lost a quarter of their legislators. The right wing of the Fifth Republic was undoubtedly the biggest loser.
This means that their votes were split, with most of them obviously going to the far right. The RN increased its bench by 38 per cent. The other part of the vote went to the left. The NFP won 18 per cent more seats than in the last elections. However, it was the right-wing NFP that took the majority of these votes.
While the number of MPs elected by Unsubmissive France hardly changed, the Socialist Party went from 30 to 59, doubling the number of seats in parliament. The PS, like all the old European social democracies (German SPD, British Labour, Spanish PSOE), joined neoliberalism many decades ago.
It's nothing more than the left wing of the Fifth Republic, i.e. the current French imperialist regime - just remember that the PS ruled France when it invaded Mali, is anti-Russia and helps support Zionism.
The other party on the right wing of the NFP that benefited in these elections was the Greens, who grew by 18 per cent. Therefore, the conclusions from the election results are as follows: 1) the Macronist neoliberal right was the biggest loser, but it didn't fall all the way to the bottom because 2) the left saved it, for fear of the far right, although 3) within the forces of the left, the big beneficiary was the neoliberal social democracy, which applies a "pink neoliberalism" that differs little from Macron 4) the far right was only contained and, as Le Pen said, its victory was only "postponed".
The French imperialist big bourgeoisie has manipulated the outcome of the elections with the main aim of containing the popular masses that have been sweeping the big cities with a growing revolt in recent years. An apparent victory for the left satisfies a section of these masses, who still believe that the PS and France Insubmissive will lead their country to a social transformation.
A victory for the centre-left, i.e. the traditional reformists who are now chosen by the bourgeoisie to administer France, also momentarily halts the far-right's rise to power, giving more time for negotiations between the different wings of the bourgeoisie.
All the cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants voted overwhelmingly for the NFP candidates. But in Marseille, the country's second largest city, traditionally the scene of the southern labour movement, the NR managed to win in half of the constituencies, which serves as a warning that a section of the proletariat may be moving towards the extreme right.
Because in the countryside and small towns, support for RN is already very visible. The French countryside is home to the far right's large electoral base. And it has a strength that cannot be ignored. It was precisely the small and medium-sized farmers who caused a huge crisis throughout the European Union between the end of last year and the beginning of this year, parading their tractors throughout the metropolises (and in 85% of French departments), as if to remind the government that they exist and can help bring it down and transform the country.
Like the urban proletariat, the middle and lower classes in the countryside are also outraged by neoliberal policies. Over the last 40 years, the state has handed over to private enterprise the entire task of providing infrastructure for rural populations. But private enterprise doesn't invest in the countryside because it doesn't see much return. There are far fewer hospitals and clinics than necessary, for example. Only the state is fully capable of guaranteeing these services, but it has been absent in recent decades.
Young people in the countryside, like those in the cities, are the main losers. They have less access to education and therefore less chance of succeeding in the highly competitive labour market. In the last decade, the rate of young people without sufficient education, without a job and without an apprenticeship has been much higher in the countryside than in the cities, and rural women also get fewer jobs than men, compared to urban women. The woke ideology peddled by both the Macron regime and the reformist left of the NFP doesn't solve any problems for these women, who end up being drawn to the far right.
One of the main pillars supporting the capitalist regime is the alliance between the big bourgeoisie and the middle class, both in the city and in the countryside. And this pillar is falling little by little, as the quality of life and the economic and material conditions of the middle class have deteriorated sharply this century. The only alternative to improving the lives of the impoverished middle class is to ally with the workers, who are also increasingly dissatisfied. Both classes have been attacking the French regime, but not in a unified way.
Who could unify these classes to fight the regime together, and thus fatally overthrow it, would be the French left. The problem is that it is not interested in overthrowing the regime, but is happily part of it. And if it is part of the regime, it is its accomplice. An accomplice of a regime that exploits and oppresses the majority of the population. The far right has been able to use this fact in its propaganda to attract the urban and rural middle classes and part of the disorganised proletariat, especially in the smaller towns, where deindustrialisation is very visible. However, as it has also shown itself to be part of this regime - by aligning itself with Macron on several occasions - it still has great repudiation among the working classes, who have been radicalising but lack political direction.
In any case, the far right continues to grow. And although the French bourgeoisie has not yet unified around the RN, the crisis of the traditional right is leading a significant part of this bourgeoisie to support it. The tendency in France is for the popular classes, driven by the urban workers, to also clash with the social democrats and the left they just voted for, because if they form or are part of the new government, they will inevitably continue the hated neoliberal policy. A social upheaval, which is increasingly likely, will threaten to sweep away the regime and this will cause the section of the bourgeoisie that today believes that the left wing of its officials can save the regime to also support the far right as the only force capable of containing the workers' revolt.
Then, all those who were saved from the precipice by the naivety of the left and today present themselves as champions of democracy and freedom will be hailing Marine Le Pen as the only one capable of guaranteeing order and social cohesion.