Conclusion

The conclusion connects this study to the book’s major themes. Studying political potentials raise questions about their origins, nature, and transmission, as well as the conditions of their translation into actual support. Explanations for nativist politics that emphasize the losers of economic globalization forget the losers of other historical changes that may be older. Images of modernity that overstate its transformative force miss the persistence of anachronisms that survive and push back. Although the elective affinity studied in this book no longer lends the same vigor to the French far right, its persistence in the broader society suggests a far-right potential will not disappear quickly.

New Political Configurations

This chapter examines how the ex-colonials organized, what political influence they achieved, and why their efforts stalled. Anticipating elections, their leaders mounted social and cultural events with support from local politicians. These events maintained collective identity and social networks. They signaled a political potential and tightened bonds with local politicians. Similar models of patron-client arose in other Mediterranean cities (e.g., Aix-en-Provence, Marseille, Nice, Montpellier, Perpignan, and Toulouse). In the 1965 municipal elections, all parties in Toulon wooed the ex-colonials, who backed the moderate right. For the 1965 presidential and 1967 parliamentary elections, they sought to maintain their influence, but lost unity. The patron-client relations and electoral support that joined them to the moderate right would persist until the rise of the National Front in the 1990s.

Settler Relations and Identities in Colonial Algeria

This chapter examines the origins and evolution of settler identity in colonial Algeria. Dealing with the years between 1830 and 1939, it examines the process by which Europeans of diverse origins gradually merged into a distinct people, the French of Algeria. The settlers defined themselves in opposition to the native Arabs and Berbers. The Jews of Algeria were in-between: non-Muslims caught between the Christian and Muslim inhabitants of the colony. Even before World War II, native intellectuals and religious leaders were calling for liberal reforms. Social conditions (residential segregation, inequality in education, linguistic and religious differences, and avoidance of mixed marriages) kept colonizer and colonized apart. The Europeans of Algeria considered themselves French, but their identification with the metropole remained contingent.

Holding Off the National Front

This chapter examines how the moderate right has held power in Toulon ever since the far-right experiment of 1995–2001. Eleven towns in France elected the National Front to power in the 2014 municipal elections and three of those towns are in the Var. Still, the moderate right enjoys a strong hold over Toulon, whose mayor has built up a power base that rivals that of the moderate right before it fell in the mid-1990s. While avoiding scandal, he and his allies have attracted significant state funding. They have mounted public works projects and buttress their power at the departmental level with influence over the regional conurbation. The moderate right is also disciplined. The city is not a loser of globalization. Still, it faces other economic challenges. Further, local results from national (presidential and parliamentary) elections suggest the city’s far-right potential remains significant.

Discourse and Politics

This chapter distinguishes between front- and back-stage discourse in locating the nature and extent of the affinity between the ex-colonials and the far right. The front stage discourse of the far right avoids the folkways, Orientalism, and collective memory of the French of Algeria, whose front-stage discourse in turn avoids partisanship. The backstage discourse of each reveals a stronger affinity: the party newspaper shows a preoccupation with French Algeria (as well as Pétainism); and the private discourse of the ex-colonials shows signs of nativism, populism, anti-communism, and suspicion of Islam. Divergences remain, significantly, over republicanism, anti-Semitism, and the deeper tradition of the French far right.

A City under the Far Right

This chapter examines how the far right won power in Toulon, and how it governed between 1995 and 2001. When corruption scandals damaged the moderate right, the National Front followed through by winning the city elections. It triumphed due to its efforts to organize, the disgrace of the moderate right, the left’s refusal to withdraw, and critical support from the ex-colonials. Constrained by law, the far right could not implement the party program of national preference. Instead, it bolstered the police force; turned the city’s annual book fair into a cultural battleground; and punished opponents and rewarded friends by fiddling with city grants to voluntary associations. Faithful to the memory of French Algeria, the far right courted the ex-colonials but also annoyed them by insisting on partisan politics. The far right reduced the city’s debt but lacked the means of proving itself.

The Unmaking of the Colony

This chapter covers the years between the start of World War II and the end of the Algerian War (1939–1962). The German defeat of France, wartime privations, infighting between Petainists and Gaullists, and the Allied invasion of North Africa diminished the image of the colonizer. The French repressed Algerian nationalism, but this only bought time. During the Algerian War, the Europeans set aside old left-right differences in uniting politically. Their relations with the Muslim population became not only more poisoned but also overlaid with fresh fears, resentments, and stereotypes. Algerian independence transformed the settlers into losers of decolonization and the Fifth Republic.

Introduction

Empire’s Legacy argues that subcultures in the shadows of society preserve a latent potential for the far right. The nativist cleavage has joined traditional cleavages that shape European politics, and France is a leading example. Dominant explanations overstate the importance of current factors, especially economic distress. This book travels into the imperial past to discover the roots of an enduring affinity for the far right. At its empirical core, Empire’s Legacy dissects the victory of the National Front in Toulon, which in 1995 became the biggest city in postwar Europe to elect a far-right government. This offers insight into the National Front’s success in a region of core support, southern France. Empire’s Legacy also shows what the far right does when it holds local power; and how opponents can dampen its appeal. Ernst Bloch’s ideas about politics and anachronism guide this study.

The Far Right Organizes in the Var

This chapter examines the history of the National Front in the Var from its origins during the 1970s until its electoral victory in the 1995 Toulon municipal elections. From the recruitment of leaders, cadres, activists, and voters to the style of language used, the influence of French Algeria pervaded the development of the National Front in this part of France. By the 1990s, the Var section of the National Front was the largest of any party in France. This laid the foundations for a strong electoral performance. While the left lost ground, the non-Gaullist moderate right resisted electorally: it upheld a system of patron-client relations, remained united in party politics, and exercised influence at multiple levels of government. The moderate right helped the far right in this part of France by validating its anti-immigrant rhetoric and treating the National Front as a tactical partner.

Gaullism Loses Ground

Looking at the decade between 1968 and 1978, this chapter examines how the shift in power from Gaullists to Giscard and his party affected the politics of the ex-colonials. The worker-student movement of May 1968 gave the ex-colonials an opportunity to press their grievances, but they won few concessions until the election of Giscard as president in 1974. Seeking their vote, Giscard lured the mayor of Toulon his party; the mayor extended new favors to the ex-colonials and in the 1978 parliamentary elections won election to the National Assembly. Rather than withering, the system of patron-client relations in Toulon had survived the end of the Gaullist era. The moderate right continued to divert the far-right potential of the ex-colonials.