While forty (at least…) candidates, ranging from Socialists to Republicans, vie for the votes of all the most reasonable voters, France is preparing for a runoff in the second round of the 2027 presidential election between the candidate from La France Insoumise and the candidate from the National Rally. We know in advance that they will both enter the campaign fueled by hatred for all those who have governed France for the past 50 years. We also know in advance that they will explain (rightly so) that a large part of the country’s problems stem from their predecessors’ lack of competence, preparation, program, courage, action, and long-term vision. If one of the two wins—and this is the most likely outcome—he or she, given their platforms, personalities, political support, and character, will demonstrate the same lack of courage, the same inaction, the same incompetence, the same lack of preparation, and the same lack of long-term vision as their predecessors. Even if they dress this up in the language of renewal, with all the necessary buzzwords: “new beginning,” “national recovery,” “putting an end to waste,” “restoring social justice,” “restoring France’s pride.” And even if they both put on a show of programs, cost estimates, and an impressive list of supporters and more or less self-proclaimed experts.
The similarity between these two extreme parties is not limited to that. It runs much deeper. It stems from what actually seems to oppose them most directly: their conceptions of France.
For the RN, France is today in grave danger of losing its identity, overrun by hordes of Muslims and Black people from Africa and the Middle East, who are orchestrating the great replacement of the French people, imposing on them cultures, customs, religions, and foreign languages, allowing Islamist gangsterism and widespread vandalism to reign, imposing Sharia law and the veil, and destroying secularism, the cornerstone of the Republic. There are countless statements from its leaders to this effect: one among many from Jordan Bardella: “Our country is undergoing an unsustainable flood of migration. What threatens us, if we continue down this path, is the breakup of France as we know it.”
For LFI, on the contrary, it is an opportunity to see France regain demographic vitality, thanks to foreigners from its former colonies, who will “creolize” it, give it new energy, enable it to be more attuned to the suffering of the Global South—and in particular of the former French colonies and Palestine—thus forging new alliances with the world’s most dynamic peoples. There are countless statements to this effect from its leaders. One among many from Jean-Luc Mélenchon: “Our France is a creolized, mixed France. A new France made up of all those who want to live together.”
At first glance, nothing could be more dissimilar than these two points of view. In reality, they agree on the essentials: For both, France must think only of its identity and its sovereignty. For both, mixing with other European peoples is unacceptable. For both, the European project is diabolical. For both, a common European sovereignty—ultimately even creating a continental nationality—is a horror. For both, the only European country that is even remotely acceptable is our great neighbor to the East, Russia. For both, the future of France must therefore be decided by the French alone, free from any influence of third countries. Proof? Marine Le Pen, Jordan Bardella, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon have all three said, word for word: “European rules cannot be imposed against the will of the French people.”
Yet the key to France’s survival, in the face of all the enemies surrounding it, is, on the contrary, the strengthening of the European Union; and the application of all its rules, even those decided by a majority of European countries of which we are not a part, in accordance, in particular, with Article 52 of our Constitution, which affirms the supremacy of treaties over laws.
This shared hatred of the European Union—whether concealed, in one case, by the pursuit of an ethnic-identity-based purge, and in the other by the advocacy of an openness to all the winds from the South—constitutes the most deadly collusion that could threaten France in 2027. Whichever of the two is in power at that time will put an end to continental budgetary solidarity, industrial integration, common border protection, common defense, the common agricultural policy, and Community preference in a very large number of sectors. This shared agenda is exactly what our competitors—or enemies—whether Russian, American, or Chinese—dream of. We must therefore expect that all the foreign ministries, all the social media platforms, and all the influence networks of these three countries will join forces to get Mr. Mélenchon, Ms. Le Pen, or Mr. Bardella elected. To France’s great misfortune.