Faced with some earlier election results here we’ve run titles like “Those Nazis next door”, expressing misgiving at the massive support shown for the National Front with, in some places, easily over a third of voters opting for the extreme Right. The first round of this year’s Presidential contest saw the nation-wide reversal of Le Pen’s fortunes clearly reflected here. Five years ago the National Front candidate picked up 25.98 % of the vote in the Alpes-Maritimes and 23.5% in the Var. Always a stronghold of political conservatism, the outcome in 2007 seems to indicate that the Côte d’Azur has turned away decisively from extremism.

Our neighbours here, like the rest of the French, turned out in record numbers (over 80 per cent voted) – and deserted Le Pen’s party in droves. His score was cut to 13.47 % in the Alpes-Maritimes, to 13.91% in the Var. Sarko topped the poll in both departments with an average poll of 42%. Christian Estrosi, President of the Conseil Général and Sarko’s point man here (with a larger national role certainly awaiting him), was quick to draw a lesson from this: “It was always wrong to call a third of our people fascists. They were just citizens whose concerns didn’t get addressed by earlier mainstream politicians. Nicolas Sarkozy has changed that.”

In other words, the leader of the UMP has taken up the issues which Le Pen had liked to think of as especially his and offered a moderate and feasible programme of action. This has brought back to respectable politics those elements in the local population particularly concerned with matters like uncontrolled immigration and law and order, notably the elderly and those of pied-noir origin or descent. They feel that Sarko understands them – and so they can dissociate themselves from Le Pen’s evil racist rant. His score here is still higher than the national average but, given the demographics, that’s no surprise. There are some real old Nazis still out there but they’re not worth too much worry.

From Riviera Reporter Issue 121, June/July 2007

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