French women voters swing sharply to far right

France’s National Rally has sought to style itself a defender of women’s rights — partly by attacking its traditional bogeyman: immigration.

Europe’s far-right voters have long been predominantly men, but French women are now bucking that trend ahead of a high-stakes election that could usher in France’s first far-right government in recent history.

Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration National Rally is tipped to win the most votes in a two-round snap election on June 30 and July 7 that could crush the liberal centrists of President Emmanuel Macron, and women are increasingly driving her party’s surging political fortunes as it seeks to position itself in the mainstream.

On EU election day this month, the National Rally came first with a stunning 31 percent of the French vote, up from 23 percent in the 2019 EU election.

The most eye-catching aspect of this swing to the far right concerned women voters, according to an election-day poll that OpinionWay carried out for the Les Echos newspaper.

DragonTypeWyvern,

If only someone had pointed out that the undermining of social support systems by neoliberalism will inevitably give rise to fascism!

synapse1278,
@synapse1278@lemmy.world avatar

It is very sad to see. RN party really doesn’t carry any values that are favorable to women in any way. They are very much fighting for blocking access to birth control and sex education. They have voted against proposal aiming to improve parity and reduce wage gapes.

sonovebitch,

You’re absolutely correct. The deputees from the Rassemblement National voted against writing the right to abortion into the French constitution and they did not support gender-equality laws when presented at the Parliament.

(lemmy.world/…/4251954e-b409-4c17-ab4c-307eab8864d…)

synapse1278,
@synapse1278@lemmy.world avatar

Official source are kinda hard to brows, but I could find this about the latest (16th) legislature:

It’s important to keep in mind that, without reading the details of the proposals, it’s hard to know the reasons for voting against. Often, a proposal with a title that seems to be progressiste is voted overwhelmingly against by the left groups, because the proposal is deemed flawed or insufficient, then many amendments are proposed and voted again, and again… It’s all very complicated to decipher. This small research also helped me to realize, what the news and media reporting about this in a more comprehensible way are often simplifying a lot and cherry-picking data to push a specific editorial line, and it is misleading more often than not.

redisdead,

All of that is less of a problem than what french women face in their everyday lives.

Longpork3,

If I was capable of getting pregnant, ensuring that I couldnt be forced into a lifelong parenthood based on a single mistake that i may not even consent to would be a much scarier thought than more people speaking a different language.

redisdead,

deleted_by_moderator

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    DragonTypeWyvern,

    $10 says this guy thinks America is full of racists, not like him tho, he’s just telling it like he sees it

    redisdead,

    deleted_by_moderator

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    jordanlund,
    @jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

    Removed, racism.

    redisdead,

    deleted_by_moderator

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    veganpizza69,
    @veganpizza69@lemmy.world avatar

    The traditional “solution” to the supposed threat of “The rapists are invading” is to lock up women domestically and only allow one rapist at a time to do marital rape.

    The news just shows that women are also humans who are susceptible to propaganda…

    SOMETHINGSWRONG,

    LOL

    rowdyrockets,

    I’m a white American that lived in France for 7 years in grade school. It’s the only time I’ve experienced racism. I know that sounds ridiculous as a white man, but I was relentlessly targeted by North African immigrants for no other reason than being American. Immigration is an issue in France. People are coming but they are not integrating. They don’t follow the laws, they don’t view women as equals, they hate LGBT, they hate western ideals. So, as an American who believes immigration is a good thing in the States - I understand why the French want to lock that shit down.

    Beetschnapps, (edited )

    Camp fire for the saints…

    en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Camp_of_the_Saints

    Edit: to point out that the comment demonstrating the worst parts of that book has 50 upvotes.

    While my pointing that out has negative downvotes.

    Then a later comment of mine mentioning how fucked up that mindset is… was upvoted… just like the original comment acting out that mindset…

    Gradually_Adjusting,
    @Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world avatar

    What a horrid book

    Beetschnapps,

    A horrid mindset.

    Zos_Kia,
    @Zos_Kia@lemmynsfw.com avatar

    Feels like i need to clarify a few things here.

    • the anti-american sentiment is not an arab thing. It’s as French as frogs legs (doesn’t make it ok).
    • the arabs who bullied you in grade school are not immigrants. Their grandparents immigrated in the 60s, but those kids were born in a French hospital with a French passport. Same goes with black people 99% of them were born in France or in one of our overseas colonies.
    • the people who are mysoginistic and homophobic are generally not the immigrants. Again, it’s a marked thing mostly with 2nd/3rd gen. It’s a thing in all religions worldwide, they are all veering towards hardcore conservatism especially among young people. I am not qualified to explain why that is but it’s shit.

    So essentially, i fail to see the point in “locking that shit down”. You close the border tomorrow you don’t solve any of the issues that are bothering racist people today. They will still have a radical mosque in their neighborhood and Mohammed will continue bullying the little american kid at school (doesn’t make it ok).

    You want some real talk about immigration ? 1 immigrant out of 3 is European. 1 out of 3 has a university diploma. In fact, migrants on average are slightly more educated, and have slightly higher income than native French. You close the border tomorrow that’s who you are barring from the country. As usual with fascist policies - it’s all damned lies.

    rowdyrockets, (edited )

    I’m not trying to perpetuate “Arab bad”. And my experience is anecdotal but that doesn’t mean you can correct - it was still very much real.

    • French kids my age had no issues with me. Some were weirdly enamored by me. Some older French folk were rude about my nationality, no doubt. But never the pure, cruel, hatred I experienced from some North Africans kids. (I say French kids but this included a lot of Western European ethnicities whose families immigrated and integrated with the French culture already. An admittedly much easier task given they already share similar cultures.)
    • Yes, mostly true. But since you’re not me, and did not live my life, you wouldn’t know I was attending the French equivalent of ESL classes with some first geneneration North Africans (I apologize I can’t be more specific.) They were some of the meanest and we couldn’t even speak a shared language.
    • If your point is that immigration is not a problem until the 2nd/3rd generation, what other solution is there than to stop it at the 1st generation until the rest of it can get sorted? I’m not pretending to have a solution, someone much smarter than me will need to figure that one. But what I do know is people are getting hurt by people that weren’t there before. A tale as old as time.

    Also as a side note. 1 in 3 is not good enough. Most people are risk adverse, give them 33% odds of something positive and they’ll tell you to shove it.

    FlorianSimon,

    As the person who replied to you rightfully said, the persons you decry are mostly French, you said so yourself. The people you want to be “locked out” of the country cannot be deported - which country would they go to if they’re French and French only?

    Your original point is wrong. Controlling immigration will do nothing to solve the insecurity RN voters perceive, because the North Africans they hate so much will still remain in France.

    Zos_Kia,
    @Zos_Kia@lemmynsfw.com avatar

    Oh i didn’t mean to correct your experience but rather the political take you extracted from it. Your personal experience in grade school doesn’t represent a systemic problem. The population we’re talking about here (north african young immigrants fresh off the boat who need remedial linguistic classes) is, what, a few thousand people a year ? You don’t close a country’s borders just because you can’t handle a few thousand unruly adolescents.

    My other point is that, while religious conservatism is a real danger to modern society, it is not driven by immigrants who have few resources and are primarily motivated by their own survival. It is driven by well established people who already have the French nationality and are comfortable enough to afford being “rebels” to the system. It’s also not specific to islam - have you seen what Christians are up to these days ? Have you seen what Jews are up to ? Current news seem to indicate that the Abrahamic-minded are not taking kindly to the 3rd Millenium.

    Also as a side note. 1 in 3 is not good enough. Most people are risk adverse, give them 33% odds of something positive and they’ll tell you to shove it.

    That wasn’t my point. My point is that the majority of immigrants come for study or work and they integrate with no issues.

    The people the RN accuses of not integrating are French people with French passports and it is their fucking god-given right to not “integrate” with the culture around them. I was a nerdy vegan kid in a village of rugby players, hunters and delicatessen producers. I never fit in with that peasant culture - should my nationality be put into question ? No ? Then why is the standard different when it’s a kid from arab descent ?

    They are French citizens they don’t owe any allegiance to any ideology or way of life and that’s one of the pillars upon which this country was built. They wake up and go to work like me, they pay taxes like me, when they’re caught speeding they get a ticket like me. They bring their kids to the same school where i bring mine. They complain about trains being late and the administration being incompetent. Let’s leave them the fuck alone alright ? We’re living together just fine.

    clark,
    @clark@midwest.social avatar

    This is the entire reason for the European right-wing wave. Some like to pretend Europeans suddenly became racist as fuck, but look at the integration issues. Sweden is a shithole now, just like France, because of this. No doubt right-wing policies are extremist, but thank the lord they opened (some) people’s eyes to the problematic nature of mass integration.

    Zos_Kia,
    @Zos_Kia@lemmynsfw.com avatar

    I’m curious to know by which metric France has “become a shithole”, and how that is related to immigration ?

    sandbox,

    i’m sorry, but I can’t bring myself to care about anti-american “racism” in europe. it might do the world some good tbh

    rowdyrockets,

    If you strip it down to its basics. It was kids bullying a kid. If that’s not something to care about, you might be an asshole.

    sandbox,

    that’s something you deal with on a case-by-case basis, not systemically.

    rowdyrockets,

    I’m not talking about the system. I’m talking about something I experienced. I’d recommend sitting down before you continue looking foolish.

    sandbox,

    Mate, you got bullied ONCE, and then decided that meant “Immigration is an issue in France.”

    You are using something minorly shitty that happened as justification for an extremist policy position.

    And you’re calling me foolish.

    rowdyrockets,

    How is it you know how many times I experienced being bullied exactly?

    I didn’t realize racism and bullying were “minorly shitty”. To people that aren’t jerks, these are real problems.

    And no, I never said anything other than “I understand why France would want to lock that shit down.” Not that I agree with the alt-right, not that North African people are inherently bad, not that only North Africans could treat people this way. I was very clear I knew my story to be anecdotal.

    Yes, you’re a fool on a fool’s tirad to make some point no one was arguing against. Must I remind you that you started this conversation by saying you wished for more American-oriented racism in the world. Have a nice day!

    sandbox,

    The United States supports genocide and colonialism around the world relentlessly, and acts like it’s a crime against humanity when there is even the slightest pushback, even though they have never been held to account for any of their own crimes against humanity. I’m sorry if awareness of that fact caused you distress, it wasn’t my intention.

    tacosanonymous,

    “It’s a bold move, Cotton…”

    lennybird,
    @lennybird@lemmy.world avatar

    Ah so put the people who routinely cause regional instability from Syria to Ukraine and deny climate change back… Surely this will help with immigration! lol.

    Badeendje,
    @Badeendje@lemmy.world avatar

    Anti migrant sentiment among women is probably helped by the news of the rapes. Just this week the 12 year old was raped by other minors for being Jewish.

    Siegfried,

    Wait, we’re those immigrants? What a horrible world we live in. Poor girl.

    synapse1278,
    @synapse1278@lemmy.world avatar

    First-hand reports did not make mention of the origins of the perpetrators, only that they are of similar age (12 and 13yo) and one of them the ex-boyfriend of the victim. Very horrible, no question. But, is immigration relevant to this case ? Isn’t it more relevant to question why education of teenagers has failed so bad ? Why are racial and faith related aggression still a thing in a laïc state ? Why nothing concrete is being done to protect women ? Let’s avoid the essay short-cuts, and instead talk about the real root-causes.

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