Bizarre French election dominated by an obsession with Jews

Since Emmanuel Macron’s shock announcement of the dissolution of the government on the evening of the European elections on June 9, when he and his Renaissance party finished in a humiliating third place behind  the far-right National Rally and the Socialist Party, not a day has passed that has not dealt an almost comical – if it weren’t all so horrifying – new surprise.

In the course of two weeks French political life has become so preposterous that if someone tried to pitch it as a TV series no studio would back it, for being utterly, absurdly implausible.

No one knows why Macron called the election. On the night it seemed like a tantrum, a challenge to the French electorate, “be careful what you wish for.” Two weeks on, with the far-right leading the polls, it’s feeling no less insane. The country is on a precipice. The fact that the Olympic Games begin two weeks later makes it only seem more dangerous. The potential for violent ructions and equally violent repression is real.

The other day an Italian – Italian! – journalist published an article saying that the French are so crazy they need national psychoanalysis. It’s certainly true that what we are seeing, among many other things, is what might be called the return of the repressed.

In this case, a tendency towards the fascism and antisemitism that for 80 years, since the end of the Vichy government’s shameful collaboration with the Nazis, have been considered beyond the pale in France, but which any honest observer would concede has always been hovering on the sidelines.

Though the French don’t like to admit it, post-war France has consistently polled significantly higher support for the far-right than almost any other European country.