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When France’s Eurosceptic right-wing Front National (FN) party topped the country’s polls in last month’s European elections, it had its hardline immigration stance to thank. A whopping 91 percent of people who voted for Marine Le Pen-led FN said immigration was the most decisive factor, according to an opinion poll carried out by the French Institute of Public Opinion.
Thus, it may come as a surprise that some of their 25 percent of votes came from minorities – the very target of some of their proposed policies.
France prohibits any public statistics based on race or ethnicity, so a definite report on voting according to ethnicity isn’t available. But for instance, in the French West Indies where the majority of the population is black, the Front National came third in Guadeloupe and second in Saint-Martin/Saint-Bathélemy. In Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean, they came fourth.
“The right and the left broke everything!” Front National 2007 election campaign poster trying to appeal to minority voters. Public domain.
Christophe, who lives in Poitiers, France, wrote in Le Plus Nouvel Obs blog that he used to vote for the left-wing party, but voted for the FN this time around:
The rise of the FN seems to stem from continued disenchantment with the declining economic status of France and the increasingly precarious situation of its lower class. An interactive infographic via Le Nouvel Observateur on the results of the 2014 European elections in France shows that FN came out on top for people earning less than 3,000 euros (about 4,500 US dollars or 2,600 GBP) per month.
On seneweb.com, “Diop” expressed gratitude for the opportunities given to his father in France and warned about the country’s economy:
Nadir, who was born outside France, added in the Observatory of the Extremes in the Europe blog that he voted for the Front National because he felt they were more “real” :
‘Why are they voting against themselves?’
This isn’t the first time the FN has drawn votes from people of migrant origins. In this article taken from Egalité et reconciliation (Equality and reconciliation, via the Swiss newspaper Le Matin), a group of girlfriends of North African origin explain why they became members of FN in 2011 prior to the 2012 presidential elections. Zoubida, about 50, wears a veil; she and Kheira share the same outlook on FN:
They’ve had enough of this type of immigration which, according to them, “capitalises” on state benefits and which applies the following modus operandi: “women have babies, the streets bring up the children and state benefits bring in the paycheck.”
Zoubida, a nursery assistant, earns 1,500 euros per month. Her rent has increased to 505 euros although she only pays 200 thanks to housing aid. “I’m fed up of seeing foreigners getting subsidized housing only three or four years after arriving in France,” she protests.
If the FN got its way, the country would have much tougher immigration policies. The blog mediapart.fr summarised the key features of FN’s manifesto:
What explanation is behind these unlikely voters? Writer Maloud Akkouche explains this phenomenon on this blog by suggesting that voting for a party like the FN lets people feel like they are rejecting their association with undesirable populations, which in the minds of many French people fit the classic profile of Arab, African or Muslim immigrants:
Citizens of migrant origin are just as prone to radicalism as certain ‘born and bred French people’. More and more North and Sub-Saharan Africans are voting for the FN. So why are they voting against themselves?
Perhaps because their reflection in the mirror resembles those shady characters responsible for the decay of low-income suburbs, or the profile of certain bearded fundamentalists who gnaw away at French secularism; a kind of secularism that the French will never give up. It’s not easy to shave or put makeup on every morning when your face is the constant victim of negative finger-pointing.
How can they escape this sense of blame? By proving that despite their physical appearance, they don’t burn cars, deal drugs, stone women, strap bombs to themselves or piss in the lift… In other words, they don’t bother their neighbours; a daily struggle which exhausts even the most well-educated people.
There are other reasons for voting for the FN, particularly for voters originating from countries where homosexuality is punishable by death. Ousmane was persuaded to vote for the FN during the 2014 European elections to express his rejection of homosexuality and globalisation. He claimed that:
Commenting on a post on Alexandre Thomas blog dealing with why sons and daughters of immigrants would vote for the FN, Narcisse, who was born in Senegal, wrote:
Whatever the reasons for their votes were, the key is most importantly to make second-generation immigrants aware that the FN does not want them in France and by voting for them, they’re giving power to those who have built their reputation on rejecting difference.
Pape Diouf was born in Chad, grew up in Dakar in Senegal, and has lived in the southern French city of Marseille since he was 18. He was the president of a first division football club and was in charge of the club of his adoptive city for many years. He explains why he can understand the voting decision of members of the African diaspora and Arab and Muslim communities during the municipal elections in Marseille in March 2014 (in which he was a candidate). He proposed a solution:
This article was originally published on Global Voices.
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