The rhetoric of the right-wing and the left-wing parties in France on Nationalism and immigration

Mgr. Lyudmila Pleshunova, B.A.

Diplomová práce

Abstract:

This comparative study examines the impact of the major political parties in France (center-right Union for a Popular Movement - Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP), center-left Socialist Party - Parti Socialiste (PS) and extreme-right party National Front – Front nationale (FN)) on the immigration policy between 2002 and present by analyzing their rhetoric and approaches on this issue, alongside with the analysis of its reflection on immigration flows and moods in the society. I am going to present the rhetoric of main candidates for the office of the President from the elections in 2002, 2007 and 2012 through their projects and manifests, together with the projects from the major political parties. The thesis develops a synthesis of different strands of work in political science: the reports on immigration data alongside immigration studies and parties manifestos. The reports on immigration data demonstrates pure statistics and shows us the facts without any prejudices and judgments, whereas immigration studies demonstrate the deeper analysis of the phenomena and indicate the factors that deserve more attention and reveal the complexity of the issue. Parties’ manifestos and programs, on their behalf, reveal the views and intentions of the party and its representatives. After the World War II, Europe and France in particular were interested in the new labour immigrants and through a new labour immigration policy they created conditions, which were very welcoming for the newcomers. As a result, the society in France transformed and became very multiethnic and multicultural, which of course created certain clashes. As a topic for the political debates and discussion, immigration was introduced by FN. But the party and its ideology had little success until the beginning of 21st century, when Jean-Marie Le Pen succeeded in the Presidential elections of 2002 and went to the second round. Exploring immigration, I am going to demonstrate its introduction by the FN’s former leader Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2002 into the French political agenda, cultural and social narratives and numerous interpretations of the immigrants’ impact on political rhetoric. The salience of immigration policy during the electoral campaign for the 2007 presidential election expanded substantially in comparison to 2002. Irregular inflows were the most dominant type of inflows in the French political debate and a broad mainstream inter-party consensus was observed over the rejection of regularization programs. The peak of these debates took place in 2005 when Nicolas Sarkozy, while being the minister of interior, activated his campaign against immigrants and was trying to impose more and more regulations to limit the inflow of immigrants and lower their number. But the census and various statistical data demonstrates, on the contrary, that the number of immigrants increased during those years and the number of illegal immigrants grew as a result of these measures. It shows that these arrangements were not very effective and clearly represents the evidence that the government is not capable to solve this issue, despite that they have clear leverage to navigate this process.

Keywords

Nationalism, immigration, PS, FN, UMP.

Jazyk práce: angličtina

Datum vytvoření / odevzdání či podání práce: 15. 12. 2014

Obhajoba závěrečné práce

• Obhajoba proběhla 15. 1. 2015
• Vedoucí: JUDr. Mgr. Ivo Pospíšil, Ph.D.
• Oponent: Ph.D. Vratislav Havlík

Masarykova univerzita

Fakulta sociálních studií

Magisterský studijní program / obor:
Politologie / European Politics (angl.)