Gabriel Attal accused of swinging to far-right territory

Marking the 100th day of his tenure, Attal has pushed on with an approach of a more aggressive style of politics that critics say remind them of the tone former French President Nicolas Sarkozy took during his years of governing, in attempt to show strength on subjects traditionally associated with the far right.

“As a nation, we must face reality for what it is,” Attal said, outlining the difficulties he claims are leading some French youth in the territories of delinquent behavior, including the negative influence of social media and inadequate parenting. He called out “Islamist infiltration” in schools, stressing the need to remain firm in implementing the French policies of secularism.

The French prime minister doubled down on these comments in a subsequent TV interview, claiming that “precepts of sharia law” were being advocated in the country’s schools.

Attal gained popularity in French politics by banning abayas, long robes traditionally worn by some Muslim women, in schools shortly after being appointed education minister by Macron last year.

His policy pledges include having high-school students in school from 8 a.m. until late evening, in order to keep them off the streets; making religious motives an aggravating factor in assault cases; and “opening a discussion” about having teenagers aged 16 and over appear in court immediately when caught in act of commiting a crime — a legal procedure that until now has been reserved for adults, reports Politico.

Despite a political approach that mirrors in some ways the far right postulates, his competitors from the far right parties are not impressed.

“During election cycles, Gabriel Attal talks like the National Rally,” RN member of parliament Edwige Diaz said in an interview with BFMTV. “When the campaigns are over … he returns to being inefficient.”

“Former French Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne used to call us out for making criminal cases political,” an RN source close to presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, told Politico.

“Attal is aware that this is an issue which shocks French people, who expect politicians to confront these situations and offer solutions,” the source said. “There’s been a change in posture.”

Christian Mouhanna, a French sociologist whose research focuses on security matters, claims that, trying to counter the rise of the far right by adopting their preferred themes often backfires, as parties like the National Rally will always push harder for tougher anti-crime policies.

This is confirmed by the latest data, that shows that the centrist party from which Attal is issued from, trails behind RN. Despite an approach deeply focused on security, Attal can’t close the wedge between his party and the far right RN in the upcoming European Elections.

Polling shows that Macron’s party Rennaissance, is currently lagging after the far-right National Rally by over 10 percentage points, and risks slipping into third place, as center-left figure Raphaël Glucksmann, backed by socialist camp starts to gain more popularity.

All the more interesting it is to see how the ruling French government tries to subdue the growing popularity of the RN party through implementing the same approaches and trying to steal voters, even though at the cost of its own centrist followers who vote for Rennaisance and brought Macron into the presidential position for the second term.

While in 2021, France’s interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, defined Marine Le Pen as “too soft” on Islam, in more recent times, the French government, the president, and his Renaissance party tabled a new immigration law whose contents were so immersed with far-right propaganda that Le Pen considered it her own “ideological victory.” Not only did Rassemblement National MPs vote in favor of the government’s bill, but their support was decisive to it passing, reports the Jacobin.

Such a situation creates a paradox for the centrist voters who feel betrayed and who believe that while the French government tries to minimize the risks of the National Rally’s involvment in French and European politics, it is slowly turning itself into something it claims is a threat.

Adil Melikov