French Left Wins Big

Vive la France! And Fuck Fascism.

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This morning, for the second time in a week, an election exit poll was released in a major European democracy. Where the announcement of a Labour win in the UK was widely anticipated, people responding with cheers and relief over the end of the Tories, there was grim uncertainty around the French elections.

Would the parties of the Far Right sweep to power? Perhaps even winning a clear majority, as they threatened to do with some justification?

Marine Le Pen arriving at the National Rally headquarters in Paris, France, 4 July 2024. Photograph: Yoan Valat/EPA

Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigrant National Rally finished first in the initial round of voting and there was real concern that after this second round they would win. Centrists called for calm and the left rallied to try to avoid the unthinkable - a democratically elected, far right government in France.

It didn’t happen.

Shortly after 6am this morning the exit poll was released and crowds erupted in celebration. I confess I burst into tears with the utter relief that France of all countries had not fallen under the spell of those who spread fear and distrust of others.

I wasn’t the only one:

Faced with the unthinkable, that their land of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity would become the latest European nation to fall to populist anti immigrant rhetoric, abandoning those values of decency, the French came out to vote - and then some.

Turnout looks to be the highest in four decades, possibly for 50 years, and well up on the first round of voting. The old adage remains true - when the left votes, the left wins! Something to keep in mind.