Under pressure to name new French PM, Macron meets far-right Le Pen • FRANCE 24 English

the president has met with the head of the National Assembly from his own block as well as representatives from the far right National rally including Marin Leen let's take a listen to what she had to say coming out of that meeting the new popular front is led by France zad the idea that there should be a new popular front government without France zad ministers changes absolutely nothing in reality it'll still be France zad and it'll still be Jean luk Milan leading the government for some more uh analysis on the story I'd like to bring in Anna mckever she's a lecturer in political science at the University of West Scotland and thanks so much for joining us you have studied the effects of immigration in particular on right-wing politics including here in France we just heard from the national rallies Marin Leen how do you think that uh the issue has affected the country's right word drift in recent years well I I think that H Marine Leen has done tremendous work in trying to normalize her rhetoric to appeal to a wider population and obviously you know with every election we've seen that the national rally is getting uh biggest share you know bigger and bigger share of seats and share of votes so what uh the strategy of marine Leen now is obviously to discredit the radical left Le onum and again all the parties are already in campaign and mode for the presidential elections and for the future parliamentary elections that are likely you know to take place um shortly in the year but definitely uh there has been a a sort ofum of the French politics in the recent years where I've seen the topics of immigration the topics of Asylum of um nikab coming more and more to the Forefront and obviously Marine lepin has H played a crucial role in doing so uh but also mainstream politicians are very much responsible for normalizing um such rhetoric on that topic uh in fact um macron of course often described as a Centrist um and yet he has stalked his previous governments with plenty of figures from what you would have to say are the right-wing uh J D Manan the interior Minister taking a very tough anti-immigration line himself a right-winger um do you think this label of Centrist applies to macron on the first part and also has the political conversation here in France has he allowed it to to be pushed by uh the national rally absolutely so uh you know since Marine Leen became the leader in 2011 um she excluded her father from the party she tries to lead this de demonization strategy of trying to appeal to a wider population but very much so why we're seeing this shift to the right uh and macron indeed passed the immigration law with the help of the national rally um last year so why we're seeing this this is because the mainstream politicians like macron like Republican the rightest party they have contributed to normalization of such rhetoric over time by first of all bringing immigration to the uh political discourse to the Forefront of the agenda and also by passing you know important legislation on immigration uh during sosi's time in office when he was the president when he was the minister of the Interior then when macron uh during macron's presidency as well so absolutely um mainstream politici have normalized that and they are as much responsible for this uh s sort of shift to the right as the national rally and that's why we're also seeing you know the increasing success of the national rally in the recent years because it's becoming more socially acceptable for voters um to vote for such party because if mainstream politicians talk about this in the same manner about immigration then um you know it definitely normalizes the rhetoric again on this topic you see here in France uh especially coming from macron and his government the sort of equivalency applied to the far right National rally and what they say the farle LA FR Fran uh do you think that there is that that's a legitimate comparison is is there really the same sort of same sort of danger to The Republic from from a a party that that really did have its roots in Nazism versus a party that is to to many people would seem to be in line with the previous Social Democratic programs here in Europe no I don't think that we can compare the uh National rally with Le uh because obviously what we're seeing what Jean luk melano has done over the weekend when he said that well we are not going to appoint ministers uh from um Le in order you know for the president to accept um the new po candidacy but so he's trying he's prepared to work uh for the French democracy while we are seen the national rally and Marine Leen right now coming half half an hour out of the meeting with uh Emanuel macron saying that no she's going to cens all the government um all the leftwing government it's basically what the national rally is in now is in electoral campaign mode and they're just trying to attack the radical left because the radical left is becoming uh biggest Contender for the national rally for the upcoming elections both legislative and presidential uh because we're seeing that in France actually the politics have has shifted from the mainstream to sort of two extremes the radical left and then the radical light right because these are the groupings that these are the parties and the movements that get the biggest you know support from the French population so of course you know the national rally is going to um attack left onum and the leftist government the leftist Coalition sorry Coalition because uh they present a real danger for them in terms of um you know losing votes in the upcoming um election all right am Keever lecturer in political science at the University of West Scotland thank you so much for that analysis