Raphaël Llorca publishes The New Masks of the Far Right (L’Aube, 128 pages, 14 euros) with the Jean-Jaurès Foundation, and there deciphers the political battle waged by Eric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen in the field of the imagination and representations.
Is the far right still advancing masked?
It is true that it has never been so easy to claim it, nor so difficult to oppose it. The extreme right imposes words, reasoning, images that have infiltrated people’s minds. But its strategies have become more complex: the approach of “unmasking” Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour is no longer enough. We are in a society of the mask, where we have integrated that politics is a stage. We have understood, out of mistrust or democratic maturity, that everything is construction without this being false.
Taking their speeches seriously and deconstructing their cogs makes it possible to “defatalize” the rise of the far right, while a little music presents it as a law of history or a political necessity. In reality, there is a whole part of construction, of strategically and plastically elaborated, to make radicalism accepted by as many people as possible.
Would this radicalism affect a majority of French people?
Overton’s window – named following Joseph Overton, an American lobbyist who theorized the domain of the sayable in public debate – has widened. Like Salvini or Trump, Zemmour extends the sphere of what can be said without being anathema. A year ago, the “great replacement” was considered the racist and conspiratorial thesis of marginal ideologue Renaud Camus. It is now endorsed by the Republican right. Radical questions reappeared, such as “Do Jews have too much power? » on the banner of BFM-TV, or « Should we reauthorize the death penalty? » in the Chanouna show [dans « Balance ton Post ! » sur C8]. Without Zemmour, no one would have asked the question of the francization of first names. It does not only accompany a movement of opinion, it creates its elements.
How does Eric Zemmour facilitate adherence to extreme ideas?
This is his first battle: to reduce the cost of adhering to radicalism, according to the formula of Giuliano da Empoli, the former political adviser to Matteo Renzi. In the collective imagination, the far-right activist is the neo-Nazi skinhead or the fundamentalist of the Manif pour tous. But new figures are appearing: the business school student, the personal development youtuber…
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