Paris, France – Fatimata, a 22-year-old French Muslim woman, suddenly feels as if many of her compatriots are against her.
On Sunday, the far right led the first round of parliamentary elections, and although it remains unclear whether Marine Le Pen’s National Rally movement will form a majority after the July 7 second round, many of France’s six million Muslims They are, like Fátima, paralyzed. afraid.
“I feel betrayed by France. Knowing that 10.6 million people voted for a party that promotes a ban on veils in public spaces is harmful,” she told Al Jazeera.
She represents the type of French citizen that Le Pen’s party has long demonized.
She wears the hijab, was born to foreign parents – Mauritanians and Senegalese, and was raised in one of the banlieues, the impoverished suburbs that surround Paris and are home to many immigrant and ethnic minority communities. She also has dual citizenship.
Le Pen called for a ban on the hijab in public spaces, while Jordan Bardella, her protégé who could become the next Prime Minister of France, called the veil a “tool of discrimination”. He criticized the crowded northern suburbs of Paris where he grew up – Seine-Saint-Denis – and promised to ban dual nationals from some “more strategic” public jobs if his party takes power.
“I deeply experienced the feeling of being a foreigner in my own country. I experienced the Islamization of my neighborhood,” Bardella, 28, said in June.
Fatimata, a student, was born in Stains, a commune in Seine-Saint-Denis. It is possible that as a child she passed Bardella in a market or sat across from her in a cafe.
“I received French nationality when I was 13 and I can’t help but think that somewhere in my periphery there is a 13-year-old girl like me who won’t be able to achieve things because the first party in France is now the National Rally,” she said. .
‘Compromising my future’
President Emmanuel Macron called early elections after suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of the far right in the recent European Parliament elections. But his risky gamble backfired.
While the National Rally secured around a third of Sunday’s votes, with 33.15 percent, the New Popular Front, a left-wing alliance, came in second with 28.14 percent. Macron was left red-faced again as his centrist alliance only polled 20.76 percent. Since then, thousands of protesters have taken to the streets to demonstrate against the far right.
Elias, a 27-year-old who works in marketing, said that many Muslims are considering emigrating from France if the National Rally ends up governing – a trend that has already taken hold among some professionals.
Earlier this year, the authors of a study titled La France, tu l’aimes mais tu la quittes (France, which you love but abandon), carried out a survey of more than 1,000 people, interviewing 140 extensively. They cited a “brain drain” of French Muslims leaving the country to seek jobs abroad because of the “harmful effects of Islamophobia.”
While it is a “valid” reaction to discrimination or the rise of the far right, Elias said he feels “divided.”
“If we all leave, who will continue to resist? I think it’s important to stay, at least for future generations,” said Elias, who is of Algerian descent.
“What also makes me very concerned is the potential increase in police violence. There will likely be a wave of racial discrimination and violence because officers will feel protected and supported by the National Rally.
“I’m scared for my younger brother, who is 15 years old and who went through his first police check when he was just 13.”
For Tiziri Messaoudene, an 18-year-old student of Algerian descent, it is Bardella’s stance on dual nationality that is most frightening.
During a pre-election speech, Bardella justified his position by evoking Russia’s war against Ukraine, saying: “Can anyone imagine a Franco-Russian working in the Ministry of the Armed Forces today?”
“The National Rally is saying that dual nationality holders will not be able to work in ‘strategic positions in the state’. This is jeopardizing my future in this country. I’m studying political science and would like to work in public affairs, so if this project was approved, would I have studied for free?” said Tiziri.
In Tiziri’s hometown of Carpentras in southern France, the National Rally scored 53.51 percent on Sunday.
The National Rally was formerly known as the National Front, the party founded in 1972 by Marine Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen. The movement tried to soften the far-right image cultivated by Le Pen Sr., who was known and condemned for racist hate speech.
Rim-Sarah Alouane, a French legal expert, said it would be “theoretically impossible” for the National Rally to carry out some of its objectives.
“The bill on banning the veil in public space would infringe the principle of secularism (secularism), while the bill on dual nationality holders would infringe the principle of equality between citizens,” Alouane told Al Jazeera.
“However, the National Rally is a political party like no other, which means it could do exceptional things if it comes to power.
“So, in theory, these projects are against the Constitution. But in practice, we will have to see whether the country’s supreme institutions will play their role as a counterweight.”
She believes that a “long process of normalization” is behind the success of the far right.
Under Macron’s government, controversial bills such as the abaya ban, the so-called separatism law and recent measures on immigration have shaken marginalized groups.
“It’s an important thing to remember,” Tiziri said. “Even under Macron, we lived in a nauseatingly Islamophobic and racist climate, where the scapegoats were Muslims and people of foreign origin.”
According to Benjamin Tainturier, a PhD student at Sciences Po Paris who investigates far-right discourse in the media, the rise of the National Rally may be linked to the “demonization of the radical left”, especially Jean-Luc’s France Insubmissa party. Mélenchon, as well as changes in theories about racism.
“After 15 years, the National Rally has managed to change the definition of what racism is, by replacing colonial and essentialist racism with a more subtle form,” he told Al Jazeera.
Macron’s Renaissance party also “stigmatized its left-wing opponents, using the same demonizing tactics that were previously used against the far right,” he said.
During the campaign, centrist politicians adopted the slogan “Ni RN, ni LFI” (Neither National Reunion nor Unsubmissive France).
Looking to the future, Tainturier shares Elias’ concern that police-led discrimination could increase if the far right dominates parliament.
“If the dominant power conveys the idea that it is acceptable to discriminate against people according to their origins, it could legitimize police violence and, thus, increase it,” he warned.
Meanwhile, Macron, who faces the prospect of cohabiting uneasily with a far-right prime minister, is appealing to voters to support the center, warning ominously of a “civil war” if the far right – or left – triumphs.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
