Chernega Vladimir Nikolaevich – Sc.D. in Law, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Envoy, Chief Researcher, INION RAS
In France, the right-wing forces are mainly represented by the heirs of the Gaullist Union for the New Republic (French: Union pour la nouvelle République, UNR), formed after the establishment of the Fifth Republic in 1958, and the Union for French Democracy (French: Union pour la démocratie française, UDF), created by President V. Giscard d’Estaing in the 1970s. In various organizational frameworks, they were in power in 1958–1981 and 1996–2012. Since the defeat in the 2012 presidential election, the French right still cannot find a winning political strategy and a leader with whom they could again claim the highest post in the state and a strong position in parliament. The article considers the reasons that led the French right to this situation, as well as their political prospects. In this regard, the social fractures that have manifested themselves in France in recent decades because of globalization, European integration and the «digital revolution» and their impact on the political preferences of the electorate are analyzed. It is noted, on the one hand, the strengthening of centrist tendencies, on the other hand, the attraction of a significant part of voters to the forces on the extreme flanks of the political spectrum, positioning themselves as «outside the system» and personified on the right by M. Le Pen, on the left by J.-L. Mélenchon. E. Macron, who won the presidential elections in 2017 and 2022, bet on a combination of center-right and center-left slogans and a promise to «update the system». Since the right-wing forces share a significant part of these slogans and mainly support the policy of the head of state, they have found themselves in an identity crisis, which, however, they hope to overcome by the 2017 presidential elections.
political right, social rifts, centrism, extreme right, extreme left, identity crisis.
Download text