The Le Pen Effect

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Kebir Houari squints against the sun at a surveillance camera mounted on one of the 17th century town houses that form the historic heart of the southern French city of Beaucaire. Installed to dissuade the increasing acts of crime and aggression that have targeted passersby and parked cars in the square below, this camera also seems to bore in on the sidewalk café where Houari and many other members of Beaucaire's ethnic Arab and immigrant population gather to while away time. "You get the feeling we're under watch and suspicion, even though we are just as fed up with the incivility and delinquency as everyone else," says Houari, 25, a municipal employee and French citizen. "Why is it some people now seem to think 'Arab,' 'immigrant' and 'delinquent' all mean the same thing?"

The question is anything but rhetorical in Beaucaire, with its many immigrant and ethnic Arab residents, surging concerns over crime and recent embrace of the xenophobic National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. Like the Gard department of which it is a part, Beaucaire belongs to a group of French constituencies where support for extreme-right candidates during general elections this month may determine the shape of the next national government. Polls indicate that first-round voting on June 9 will qualify National Front candidates for the June 16 run-offs in over 200 of France's 577 legislative races — way up from the 1997 level of 75. Such triangulaire battles will pit the National Front against rivals from the Socialist Party led by François Hollande and the rightist groupings under the newly re-elected President Jacques Chirac. But a strong showing from the National Front could split the vote for the right, allowing the Socialists to capture parliament. That would saddle Chirac with another five years of cohabitation, during which he would be virtually powerless to influence the domestic issues on which he campaigned: security, sweeping tax reductions and business-friendly economic reform. To prevent that, Chirac's allies may be tempted to think the unthinkable: cut a deal with the far right.

The National Front's potential of playing king-maker has come about due to the appeal of its anti-immigrant, fear-mongering messages in places like the Gard. Last month, as law and order obsessions turned the presidential race into a single-issue campaign, a stunning 36.1% of Beaucaire's voters opted for Le Pen's neo-fascist message during first-round polling. A numbing 40% then backed his run-off against Chirac. While dramatic, Beaucaire's lurch to the extreme right was not unique. All told, Le Pen's 26.7% run-off score in the Gard far outpaced his national count of 17.8%. In the otherwise charming and idyllic nearby towns of Vauvert and Saint-Gilles, Le Pen's second-round take was 33.7% and 40.3% respectively. "What's amazing is that in places like Vauvert, crime is mostly limited to petty acts, and in Saint-Gilles it's virtually unheard of," comments a local police official who requested anonymity. "Relations with the immigrant communities are also relatively placid. So where is the hate vote coming from?"

In part from textbook National Front bigotry and fear tactics. During campaigning for the Gardois seat covering Saint-Gilles and Beaucaire last week, National Front candidate and Vauvert native Florence Berthezène handed out leaflets decrying "lynchings, rapes, theft of all kinds ... racketeering, drug dealing, prostitution [and] pedophilia." But the police official notes, "The last killing anyone recalls in Vauvert was of an Arab youth." Be that as it may, the French feel vulnerable — and want action. "Crime and feelings of insecurity are directly linked to immigration," Berthezène growls. "Immigrants who are here illegally and who cheat or commit crime will be expelled. They are costing us money and creating the trouble."

With a handful of conservative candidates (including Beaucaire's rightist mayor, Jean-Marie André) and a largely united left behind Socialist incumbent Alain Fabre-Pujol challenging Berthezène, her march to parliament is far from assured. But the troubling allure of Berthezène, Le Pen and their fellow extremists frightens and perplexes many Gardois as much as lurking criminals do. Aware that Le Pen's stunning presidential score required the backing of average folk usually repelled by his unsavory opinions, Dalida Hamoudi began seeking out local mainstream voters so desperate that they turned to the National Front. Hamoudi is a French citizen of Algerian extraction who is director of programming at the local station Radio Beaucaire, where she also hosts her own show. She's still looking for someone to fess up. "As a body, nearly half the voters in Beaucaire voted for Le Pen, but no one will admit or explain it," she muses. Like Houari, Hamoudi says rising crime and ambient hostility are concerns, but their dramatization by French politicians and the media has played right into Le Pen's hands. "I'm ashamed of the Beaucairois who vote Le Pen, which isn't merited by what's happening here today," she says. "That said, if you come back in two years and nothing's been done to address the feeling of tension and insecurity, I could be voting for the National Front along with them." In other words, Beaucaire residents aren't the only ones being monitored — when it comes to crime and insecurity, French voters are watching mainstream politicians too.