The far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party is never more skillful than when it plays on the fears of the French: the fears of foreigners, criminals, downgrading… Paradoxically, the subject of climate change is not one of the population’s anxieties. Faced with this major challenge, which is of concern to the whole of humanity, the far-right party seeks to reassure.
While the acceleration of climate-related degradation is becoming increasingly evident, RN leader Marine Le Pen says the reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are “alarmist.” Largely in the lead in opinion polls ahead of the first round of parliamentary elections, the RN stands out for its denunciation of an allegedly punitive environmentalism, with the sole project of unraveling the little progress made in recent years.
The rejection of the fight against climate change is a promising theme for parties seeking to ride the wave of discontent. The last European elections showed that exploiting environmental issues can pay off electorally. Adaptation to climate change, the difficulty of financing it, the upheaval in lifestyles: All these factors combine to make environmental protection a convenient scapegoat. But ignoring a problem has never solved it.
The “common sense” environmentalism advocated by the RN is pure demagoguery. Protecting household budgets means promoting fossil fuels by lowering VAT, which in turn means importing more oil and gas, contrary to the RN’s claim to energy sovereignty. Putting a stop to wind power, as Jordan Bardella advocates, will lead to higher electricity bills. As for nuclear power, with the RN, it becomes a magic solution to decarbonization, with no concern for the time needed to reconstitute the industry. Where we need to accelerate, innovate and finance, the far right talks only of renunciation and moratoriums.
The RN is promising the French people an environmentalism with no constraints by abandoning the fight for thermal building renovation, letting them continue to drive diesel cars, and castigating the principles of responsible agriculture. The country, the RN believes, would find itself encapsulated in a magnified past, in which it would be possible to keep our lifestyles, our landscapes, our modes of production and travel. It’s a kind of obstacle refusal.
The antithesis of the RN’s culture
The RN’s proposals are nothing more than an anti-environmental agenda, which would lead to a dramatic step backward in this area, and irreparably set France off course from the Paris Agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
This is undoubtedly the very essence of far-right ideology. Isolationism, prioritizing national interests over the rest of mankind, and confining issues to national borders is incompatible with the fight against climate change, which requires cooperation, universalism and solidarity – all values at odds with the culture of this party.
With “national preference” and relocation as its sole strategies, France would isolate itself diplomatically and fall considerably behind in the race to green the economy. The RN’s “reassuring” approach to environmentalism gives us everything to worry about.