Half hand claps smack of silence in face of slaughter

World of Politics with Harry McGee

The run-off of the French presidential election has begun, between incumbent Emmanuel Macron and the far-right politician, Marine Le Pen. Macron still has an advantage – but it is going to be close when the second round of voting commences later this month.

We have no equivalent of Le Pen in Ireland. A far-right party has never really gained a foothold in Ireland, unlike most other countries in Europe.

What makes us an outlier? Is the reason that we are more reasonable than our European counterparts?

We are certainly smaller, and that slightly more intimate society might explain part of it. Immigration is no longer new here; it’s been a phenomenon for over quarter of a century now and a fair portion of the current Irish population is either non-Irish, or the child of non-Irish parents.

If you look at Le Pen’s policies, many are avowedly to the right – anti-immigrant, banning the wearing of the full Muslim veil, the hijab; draconian law and order policies.

“Give France back to the French” is their slogan. It leaves little to the imagination, even though she has distanced herself from the direct racism of her politician father, Jean Marie Le Pen.

However, it is interesting to see that Le Pen advances other policy positions that we are familiar with in Ireland. They include substantial anti-EU sentiment, a huge emphasis on the cost-of-living in political campaigns, a suspicion of NATO which she has branded a “warmonger”, as well as attacks on political elites.

For some far left-wing ideologues, there is a continuing delusion that this is all still NATO’s fault. This from the recent Socialist Equality Party newsletter.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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