Hollande lauded for decisiveness after attacks, but far right also gains

PARIS — Amid the horrors of the last week, French President Francois Hollande is widely judged to have kept his calm, acted decisively and spoken the words of condemnation, defiance and unity expected of a French President, who by tradition is called on to embody the nation.

In the days after a series of terror attacks, Mr Hollande has had a great boost politically despite being the most unpopular President in recent French history before the events. The attacks, however, will likely sharpen his clash with far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

Ms Le Pen, who was not invited to the mass rally in Paris on Sunday, has made the challenge of radical Islam to France the centre of her political platform. Even before the attacks, her brand of nationalistic French populism had helped make her a credible contender to succeed Mr Hollande in the 2017 election.

Her exclusion from the rally, however, is seen by commentators as a political mistake by Mr Hollande’s Socialist Party, which organised the event that sought to rouse national solidarity following the attacks.

Ms Le Pen, whose support in various opinion polls for the 2017 presidential election comes close to 30 per cent, loudly cried foul. Her exclusion made a mockery of the concept of national unity and was itself a violation of freedom of expression, which the rally was meant to uphold, she said.

“The masks fall,” she added. “National unity is a pitiful political manoeuvre.” She said her supporters would see her exclusion as a tribute to their power. “They will have the opportunity if they wish to express their opinion at the ballot box.”

Former centre-right Prime Minister Francois Fillon said he found the decision not to invite the party “hateful (and) dangerous”, adding that it was “in line with what the terrorists want”.

Ms Le Pen’s embrace of exclusion perfectly fits her politics. Using old tropes of the far right in France, she took pride in avoiding the capital Paris, which she and her supporters view as the centre of political corruption and cynicism, in favour of the “real France” of genuine patriots tied to their land and provinces. She marched on Sunday instead in southern France, in Beaucaire, where her National Front party won local elections.

“We’ll march there where the spirit of tolerance is the strongest,” she said, “where sectarianism is less violent.”

Mr Alain Barluet, a journalist with the daily Le Figaro, said Mr Hollande had handled the situation well so far except for his exclusion of Ms Le Pen.

Mr Hollande will benefit for a time from national mourning and solidarity, he said. “We’ll have to see how long this very fragile unity will last,” he added. “You’ll see, next week things will again begin to crumble.”

Faced with a challenge from Mr Sarkozy and the centre right, Mr Hollande is trying to establish himself as the only viable alternative to Ms Le Pen, he said.

“If Hollande can do that, it will be good for him,” said Mr Pierre Rousselin, a political analyst and author of The Democracies In Danger. “This is cynical politics and there’s a lot of this going on beneath the spirit and the beautiful slogan that ‘We are all Charlie.’ ”

The problem, Mr Rousselin said, is that “the National Front is the only party that is saying out loud things that many people feel and the current moment is playing into this discourse”. Agencies