Support for the French neo-fascist organisation National Front (FN), headed by Jean-Marie Le Pen, has increased dramatically over the past few years. The election, on February 9, of FN Mayor Catherine Megret in the southern French city of Vitrolles confirms this. This is the first time that this organisation, which actively campaigns against immigration and promotes a racist, xenophobic and sexist program, has scored more than 50% of the vote.
PATRICIA FRANCHINI, an activist in the anti-fascist movement in Toulon, was interviewed by JEAN MARTIN in the January 16 issue of the French left weekly Rouge about the alarming growth of the FN in many local councils. Toulon, like Orange and Marignane in the Provençal region in southern France, is headed by a FN local government. The translation for Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly is by Stuart Russell.
Question: What kind of decisions has the FN government taken?
The National Front wants to beef up security by increasing the numbers of municipal police officers, to extend their patrols in a city where "criminality is on the decrease" according to statistics of the Ministry of the Interior! It's merely a pretext to build up an "administrative" machine which controls the activity of the city.
The FN has no program for culture or town planning. It's trying to reabsorb the budget deficit created by the previous local government. The plans of the municipal police are in contradiction with this goal of budgetary restraint. The FN has therefore reneged on its promise not to increase local council rates, which have increased by an average of 5%.
The FN has been trying to increase its support by developing a policy of small public works that is supposedly "receptive to the community". Their goal is to control the city, enter the social sphere and give money to youth and community groups. This is all done very slowly, and gradually they are controlling these institutions.
For instance, the music conservatory is run by a teacher who is an FN member. They were able to get rid of the former director and have someone who is a hard-liner. The people in the conservatory aren't terribly political, and to be able to perform they become FN members.
They control the opera, youth groups like Youth Employment Toulon, entertainment committees and sports clubs. The Student House is also controlled by the FN.
Question: Have there been racist incidents?
There hasn't been a great increase in racist incidents in Toulon, but then Toulon is a place where victims of racism don't complain! As a result, we really don't know what is happening. Even under the previous administration, it was often the law of silence which reigned in the North African community.
Apparently there hasn't been any discrimination in housing, but on two occasions the FN showed its real colours. For the past 15 years there's been a market for European and African traders. The FN closed it to encourage a market promoting "Provençal identity".
The second racist incident was a very violent one that took place during the last book fair: publishers and bookshops kept away in droves because Le Chevalier, the deputy mayor, didn't like the presence of Marek Halter. Only a few bookshops showed up, and especially far right publishers.
Mourad Boudjellal, a Toulon publisher who came as a citizen, was violently confronted by Alain Sanders from the newspaper ±Ê°ùé²õ±ð²Ô³Ù. He was called a "dirty Arab" and physically thrown out of the fair by 30 people. The real face of the FN is revealed once in a while, a face of repression in cultural matters, of intolerance and hatred.
Question: How is the population reacting?
We are witnessing a radicalisation in the FN's electorate, exemplified by the crowds of several thousands at the book fair. There is a far right constituency, but the people of Toulon who are not FN supporters do not react to what is going on and live their lives away from the political squabbles, which seem far removed from their preoccupations.
There really isn't in this city, which suffers from the UDF [Union for French Democracy, party of former president Valery Giscard d'Estaing] regional administration, any political awareness because there's no real alternative project to the FN's program.
Question: What role has the prefect [regional administrator] of the Var River played concerning the FN?
The prefect of Var [in Provençal], Marchiani, was appointed by the [national] government to ensure that Le Chevalier wouldn't channel anti-government sentiment to the FN. He's operating on the same territory as the FN, and hopes to promote the image of a strong state, to attract the FN's electorate.
So he led a fight against the Châteauvallon Theatre, took a number of steps to ensure that the FN would not be isolated and organised ceremonies with the FN mayor, for instance to celebrate the anniversary of the liberation of Toulon [during World War II].
Question: How effective are the groups fighting against the FN?
There isn't much activity inside the local council by the Communist [PCF] and Socialist [PS] councillors. The left's support has decreased due to its lack of unity against the FN during the township by-election last September, and it no longer represents a strong enough pole of attraction to provide a real alternative.
The young North Africans in the area are really mobilised and have formed a group called Toulon Is Ours Too, but which is on the periphery of the left groups like the PS. But their campaign has not spread very far.
The anti-fascist movement isn't well organised in Toulon. One group has been created, the Movement of Toulon Citizens for Democracy, but the right-wing politicians have taken it over.
Question: What is the future on the electoral front?
For the time being, the right is divided by the rivalry between the RPR [Rally for the Republic, right-wing Gaullist party of President Jacques Chirac] and the UDF, which hopes to take this city in 2001, and to have a legislative victory by 1998. The right is on the move but is divided.
The FN hopes to manoeuvre between a divided right wing and a left wing which may not appear to be an alternative to the far left because it is timid and incapable of organising the anti-fascist movement. The PCF has refused to call for the prefect's resignation.
This is a situation of absolute flux, where the FN may appear as an extreme right party in the eyes of the majority, but also a party deeply rooted in the city since it's dealt with everyday issues.
Banality on the one hand, little reaction on the other. The FN is strong because it doesn't have a real opposition.