Leaders of France's Center-Right UMP party are celebrating their victory in the first round of municipal elections held Sunday. In particular, former president Nicolas Sarkozy will be hoping that a second round victory next Sunday, will improve his chances of once again winning nomination as UMP's presidential contender in 2017. Yet this result is absolutely no cause for congratulations. For a start there are the stark figures. While UMP candidates won 32 percent of the vote, the neo-fascist National Front took fully a quarter of the ballot. As widely expected, President Francois Hollande's socialists came in third with just 22 percent of the popular vote. No one should take comfort from the fact that an apparently mainstream political party has pushed the neo-fascists into second place. For a start, the UMP seems to have gone out of its way to beat National Front challengers by stealing the Front's clothes. Thus the UMP has appeared tough on immigration. Moreover, in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre and the outrage which it inspired, there is barely muted criticism of those living in France who do not wish to embrace French values. Most UMP candidates have been careful not to unwrap the monster of Islamophobia during the hustings. Nevertheless, at town hall meetings they have been bombarded with questions from anxious followers of the French press and media about their views of Muslims and immigration. Aware of the screeching echoes outside the halls of the naked National Front message calling for a clampdown on immigration and the expulsion of anyone living in France who choses to reject the French way of life - whatever that is - UMP candidates have mixed soothing reassurance with winks and nudges that they will be every bit as tough on immigrants and Muslims as their opponents. It does not matter that in polite society and briefings to favored journalists, UMP leaders say that the priority is to keep the National Front from power and that it does not matter what has to be said to achieve this, and that whatever promises are made on immigration and forcing conformity on Muslims can be abandoned as soon as the UMP is safely back in office. Yet it was Nicolas Sarkozy's administration which introduced the headscarf ban in schools. It was Sarkozy, first as interior minister and then as president, who cracked down hard on street protests by angry and disaffected Muslims. The violence of that repression did a great deal to advance the message of bigoted extremists and magnify the call of jihadist terrorism. France's chattering classes meanwhile are looking with despair at the floundering Hollande administration. It is not simply that the president himself has been beset with scandal, some of which casts serious doubt on his character. His government is struggling to deal with an economy that was ruined in the Sarkozy years, both by the worldwide financial downturn and Sarkozy's own refusal to introduce key reforms. Radical changes to the workplace as well as health and welfare system are essential if France is to balance its budget. Yet despite his sonorous promises, Hollande and his socialists are probably the last people able to drive through reforms which cut against their socialist principles. Thus without a return to prosperity, French electors will continue to blame everyone but themselves for their financial troubles. On this Sunday's showing, their votes are likely to go to the biggest bigot.
