Who are France's far-right party voters?

We begin here in France, where hundreds of thousands of people are protesting nationwide in mass demonstrations against the rise of the far right. It comes after the National Rally saw an unprecedented surge in last week's European elections, winning over 30% of the vote. President Emmanuel Macron responded by calling snap parliamentary elections, triggering a deeper fears that the far right could score high enough to enter the government for the first time. For more, we can cross now to France 24's Karis Garland, who's at the protest here in Paris. Karis, tell us what's the latest where you are. Well, there's an overall very festive mood here in eastern Paris. Union convoys that you might see behind me are playing music. We have dramas riling up the crowd. And the mood here is is overall quite hopeful. As you said, these 10s of thousands of people have come out to protest against the far right party, the National Rally and its unprecedented gains in last weekend's European elections. But they really do believe that this new left wing coalition made-up of four left wing parties here can can make a difference and can come through in the legislative elections starting the first round 30th of June. Some of the people that we spoke to say said that it was really important for them to come out here and protest against what they call the National Rally, xenophobic policies, overall anti immigration laws and and things that they might put in place in this domain in particular. They also told us that they were shocked by Macrons announcements for dissolving the National Assembly, the parliament. And they were here to really show that not just that they were protesting against the National Rally, but they were showing their support for this new Popular Front, the new people's front, also this new coalition. We have seen, however, a little bit of violence. We've seen some damage to bags, bus stops, things like that from some fringe groups. Police presence is not so much felt on the protest route itself. We can see some police, some riot police in the streets adjacent to the protest. But overall, spirits are high and it's a festive mood here. It does look like a pretty steady stream of people behind you there. Karis, thank you so much for that update. That's France 24. Karis Garland reporting from the protest here in Paris. Well, for some analysis on the political situation in France, I'm joined on set by our international affairs commentator, Douglas Herbert. Doug, hi. Now these protests are seeing pretty huge turn out, but they are taking place in cities. As we know from electoral maps. Many National Rally voters come from more rural areas. Can you just remind us, you know who those far right voters are? They're as varied as the French themselves. You know, it's very easy to paint the the National Rally as it's called. It was formerly the National Front for many years. In these broad brush strokes, you constantly hear these labels. They're racist, they're xenophobic, they're hate mongers, they're conspiracy theorists. Yes, for some National Rally voters, that is true. That's also true for other segments of French society. What you can say though, there are some general broad themes, and I have to be careful in saying broad themes that you can tie to the National Rally because this is exactly the message their leaders has given. One of it is this hard link sort of connection between the sense of social suffering of people they're purchasing power being down that they're taking, they're feeling the economic pinch, they're not doing well socio economically. And connecting that with immigration and specifically with what the National Rally leaders have called an immigration invasion, being submerged by all of these immigrants, these foreigners pouring into France. Now, this isn't just France. This is a, a trope. This is a theme of far right movements across Europe. Also in the US as well, you know, sort of scapegoating, demonizing immigrants. It's a broad theme. It might not hold for everyone, but this whole thing that the immigrants are causing a lot of your suffering. And more specifically, it's not just it's the sense that they are foreigners. There's also another level. It's this anti elite thing among a lot of the National Front voters. There's a sense of rejecting people who seem to be speaking down to them from these higher classes from an A position of arrogance. Emmanuel Macron for the your average National Front, National Rally voter embodies that type of elite arrogance. So they're anti elitist and they're also though, anti people who get assistance, people who are on benefits from the state living off these handouts as they see them. So there's a lot of anti elitism, but also on the other hand, being against people who are often feeling the economic pinch just as much as they are. But they're often foreigners. They're, I say often not always getting handouts from the state. I will say more young people are voting for the National Front. They do have what many people call a charismatic, relatively young leader. Well, relatively he's young, 28 years old and he has seen as potentially the next Prime Minister if they get a sizable majority as some predict in a couple of weeks time in these elections for the national parliament. But not to broad breaststroke them, but there's generally an anti immigrant sentiment, a fear for security and also a fear that immigrants are causing a lot of the security problems in France, even if the actual statistics do not bear out that perception. Yeah, it is just interesting to imagine how they might be, you know, watching these protests against against them. Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, has been out of the country for the past couple of days. How do you think he's feeling at this point about his decision to call this snap election? Right. Let's let's say his thinking, as some say it was was that, you know what, calling the French bluff, calling them back to the polls and say you guys want the far right in power. OK, go. I dare you. I dare you to vote the far right in power, let you see what the far right in power will actually do, their promises out of power and all the miracles they say that they will be able to bring about versus their reality when they get to power. Now that might be an overly over easy assumption if that in fact is what Macron was calculating. I suspect right now, watching what has happened, he's been taking a bit off guard in the past week by the fact that there hasn't been this magnetic gravitating around more centrist movements, IE his own movement, and rather a coalescing of the the left forces, what he calls the far left, what Macron and his centrist equate with the far right. The far left and the far right are both extremes. They are both to be avoided. Hoping that the French will coalesce around the centrist. We're not seeing that right now. And what I will just know what's really interesting is go back 22 years, Allison. You'll remember when Marine Le Pen's father, Jean Marie Le Pen, squeaked into the second round. It shocked France and the world into the second round presidential runoff against then President Jacques Chirac. At the time we're talking in 2022 on Mayday, then May 1st, you had almost 1,000,000 French rallying in the streets against Jean Marie Le Pen, more than we've so far seen today on the streets. And what's different in that rally is all of the political parties were essentially rallying together with Jacques Chirac's party. They weren't conservatives all like Jacques Chirac. And in that second round of the election, John Marie Le Pen ended up getting under 18%. It was 17.8% of the vote. Jacques Chirac sweep. The rest of France. We are not seeing what was called the Republican front anymore. A lot of that shows that shows the extent to which this party, we've used this word before, has been normalized. The far right has been legitimized and is now seen as almost just any other political political party. Macron perhaps wasn't counting on this sort of connection of the far left hooking up against him as much against Macron in a way as against the National Front. So that's what's going to be really interesting to see if in the next two weeks or so there's going to be any gravitation to more centrist forces, to Macron's own party, to his own forces. Otherwise, you could say he gravely will have miscalculated. Yeah. It seems if anything, the Republican front is now the left wing front that's shifted, shifted to that side. Doug, you so much, as always, for your analysis, that's our international Affairs commentator, Douglas Herbert.