Four towns in Provence (in the south of France), Toulon, Orange, Vitrolles and Marignane, are run by the Front National (FN - National Front) – or its splinter faction: the Mouvement national républicain (MNR - National Republican Movement). This extreme right-wing party has made opposition to immigration, and especially immigration from the Maghreb, its main platform. As there are laws repressing racism in France, this party officially develops analyses based on difference – i.e. explaining that foreigners are ‘different’ and not ‘inferior’, and therefore cannot be integrated into our society - and works primarily with innuendoes which are very well understood by its militants, its electors – and ultimately by everybody. Its nucleus consists of old far right anti-Semitic militants and former supporters of ‘Algérie Française’ (French Algeria), and the party has developed from 1984 on. Up until 1997 it made progress at every election: European, Presidential, Parliamentary and local regional and municipal elections. It gained control of three towns at the 1995 municipal elections in a three-way election (three lists of candidates in the 2nd round), and of a fourth at Vitrolles in February 1997 in a straight contest with the left, which had run the town for over 25 years. Let’s take a closer look at what has happened in the towns where this party has gained power.

The political forces took a long time to get over it: the divisions in the traditional right which helped it gain power have worsened because the outgoing leaders were discredited. The left, accused of corruption or incompetence, also had difficulty in rediscovering a credible line of argument and credible people to represent it. But perhaps we should look at things the other way round, and say that it is because the traditional political forces had failed that the FN won: so its victory could only make things worse for some time. For the discrediting of those who had been defeated made their moral arguments look particularly uncalled-for.

The result of this situation was that, to begin with at any rate (for two years at least), the parties seemed incapable of finding any answer to the new situation: all the more so as in France these parties had handed over some of the major themes of the Republic to specialist organizations. SOS Racisme, MRAP (Mouvement contre le Racisme et l’Antisémitisme et pour la Paix - Movement opposing Racism and Anti- Semitism and promoting Peace), and LICRA (Ligue contre le Racisme et l’antisémitisme - League opposing Racism and Anti-Semitism), which use predominantly judicial means to combat racism, were created by political militants a long time ago. But the parties themselves no longer ever intervened in these fundamental fields. Therefore they were at a complete loss, in intellectual and human terms, over to how to respond to the FN. More than that, or worse: some of the views adopted by the far right were shared by many members of the traditional parties. One example: racism is very widespread in all political parties. But nobody likes to admit that kind of thing: that silence benefits the far right. The vote-catching operating methods of those elected, who often prefer to “buy” the electors, symbolically or by services rendered, rather than persuade them, or else they prefer to bring their personal charisma into play, accentuated that trend. The FN’s victory in fact meant that the vote-catching system in the towns had been seriously weakened – and that charisma no longer worked. It also meant that charisma had changed sides: it had gone over to the far right. To start with the far right looked like a group that would clean up power, and root out corruption and vote-catching practices. This made it very hard to criticise them: never having been in power these new leaders were not tainted by it and tended to have “cleaner hands” than those they had defeated.

That is why resistance to the FN initially came from associations and people who were themselves outside the traditional political system: militants (often) from the far left, educated men and women who detest compromise, and rather marginal notabilities from the political system (old names, or else new ones). These groups then came together and thought up all kinds of actions that are not part of the routine political process in order to protest: women dressed in mourning, noisy invasion of the council rooms, colloquiums and conferences spread over several weeks, a fighting picnic on 1 May, unexpected lawsuits, and the publication of newspapers intended to “monitor” the newly elected councillors. But tactical questions (whether or not to stand at elections, or to enter into an alliance with this or that person) very soon arose, and these groups/associations, set up especially to combat the far right, found it difficult to keep going for long. So it often happened that they tore themselves apart, some militants joining the traditional parties, and others giving up the fight. This does not mean that they served no purpose: they voiced moral and political protests that were no longer being made by others. Those protests could then be integrated into the programmes of the parties which later on returned to the forefront of the fray, promising not to make the same mistakes again.

A different driving force then redefined the terms of the political battles: the activities of the far right itself. For if one thing is sure, it is that it failed to keep its promises, and in addition it has had a deeply damaging effect on the social and political fabric. For example: the lack of security which was one the central themes of its propaganda has not lessened in the four towns the party runs – or in any case no more than anywhere else. Taxes (another promise) have come down in two towns, but no more than in other towns not run by the FN. Whereas services to the population have deteriorated: in Toulon, for four Wednesdays in a row (the day when schools are closed) the traditional children’s excursions could not take place. Cultural policies have been destroyed (mainly in Toulon and Vitrolles), isolation has increased vis-à-vis neighbouring towns and other local communities, and the reputation of the towns has been damaged. Inside the towns tensions, particularly tensions relating to racism, have worsened, especially to begin with. The rundown condition of the large housing estates has increased: Toulon’s HLM (Habitations à Loyer Modéré - low rent housing) office has been left abandoned, and all the communal facilities of the Les Pins district in Vitrolles have been sacrificed.

When it comes to the management of municipal staff (the story is often ironic), the FN turned out to be the most vote-catching party of the lot: in Toulon, municipal councillors secured jobs for their wives, their children, their in-laws; and their political friends as well (moreover the mayor’s wife was condemned for having written that it was necessary to promote the appointment of party-sympathisers to the municipal services…). This nepotism or vote-catching tactic is central to the theories of the far right which (like any totalitarian system) divides the world solely into political friends and enemies. Moreover their policy towards civilian society – and associations - is also a policy entirely based on securing votes: only those who say they are in agreement with the town hall are helped, and attempts are made to make others disappear.

This management, violent and often badly controlled, led to many lawsuits of all kinds: administrative suits for illegal municipal decisions relating to the dismissal of staff (Vitrolles); suits about the conditions under which services were privatised (Vitrolles in connection with the collection of household rubbish, Toulon in connection with school canteens and services for young people); suits relating to social discrimination (Marignane: the mayor was found guilty because he required parents to give two certificates of work for primary school canteens: that cut out the children of the unemployed); suits relating to racial discrimination (Vitrolles: the woman mayor was twice found guilty of discrimination: once in connection with her racist remarks in a newspaper, the other time for having been instrumental in a vote approving a birth grant reserved exclusively for French or European parents). Finally, as those on the far right are not great respecters of the law, some of them are involved in other lawsuits: a leading Toulon member of the FN is in prison for rape (he abused employees of the HLM office he was in charge of), another has been found guilty of holding arms. The mayor of Toulon and his wife are currently being sued for the misappropriation of funds intended for an association, and another case is being prepared relating to public markets. In Vitrolles two councillors are being prosecuted for an attack on a strike picket. Added to this there are cases with various activists that have been lost (and sometimes won by them) for insult or slander …

This means that part of the struggle against the far right in power is ultimately carried out along very simple lines, themes which were rediscovered when it came into power: respect for republican legality, democratic procedures and human rights.
For the French constitution - and the law - contains fundamental articles making it possible to answer them on the legal level – and at the same time on the political level.
The first people to understand this on the ground were the trade union officials of the municipal employees, the lawyers defending them, and some associations (anti-racist ones for example). So it can be appreciated that the vigilance of the State and judicial authorities are indispensable to ensure that citizens, trade union officials, militants belonging to associations or political militants can fight their battles. If those authorities make no move or are hand in glove with the far right, things become more serious. This happened in Toulon where a Prefect (the representative of the State in the department) helped the FN act against a national cultural institution (concerned with dance); and where the law officers, very pronouncedly right-wing, had great influence at the Palais de Justice (law courts): on several occasions this got in the way of struggles against the FN.
Where the daily struggle is concerned, it is often the associations that are closest to the people that put up the most effective resistance, even if it is not very spectacular. The trade union officials at Vitrolles town hall have helped the staff on a daily basis, won all the cases they have brought and gone on strike when the measures introduced were intolerable (illegal sanctions). This has brought considerable discredit on the town hall. A district association (for Les Pins) also helped the residents not to feel too abandoned. Other people have started more spectacular legal proceedings which have provided an opportunity to give the local people explanations. It is all these little efforts taken together that have enabled public opinion to become aware of the dangers of the far right. The political parties have also started playing a role again, and are benefiting from this work: if they succeed in driving the FN and the MNR out of office, it will be thanks to all these things.

And finally the press, which often acted as an amplifier for the rise of the far right, and has been reproached for talking about it too much, is also contributing towards amplifying the difficulties these local authorities are experiencing. It gives a very full account of the lawsuits and of the activities carried out by opponents of the FN. Hence it is also playing a role in the loss of credit that is beginning to hit the far right, as it did when the internal battles within the FN led to its split: by recounting these the press made a big contribution towards destroying the pure image of these parties.