Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

The far right is, unfortunately, on the march across Europe. It is on the verge of coming to power in France. We will see what has happened by the end of the week. We hope it is not in power. It will be the first far right government in France since the Vichy regime. The party of the RN has its origins in that regime. Members of the SS operated within France in support of the Nazi occupation.

The question for all progressive people across Europe is how the far right can be stopped politically across Europe and much of the world. There are lessons to learn from France. One of those is that the so-called centre, or the extreme centre, as Tariq Ali termed it, paved the way for the far right. In the most immediate sense, Macron called these elections in the hope of bolstering himself, catching the left off guard and opening the door to the far right winning a parliamentary majority. Over the past number of years, his policies have included austerity, increased social deprivation, attacks on workers and pension rights and centring the issue of immigration as if it is the problem. He put forward an immigration law that was supported by the far right, which, because it was so bad and racist, has opened the door to the far right. These forces cannot be trusted. At European level, Ursula von der Leyen shamefully tried to delay a report into the crackdown on media freedoms in Italy in order to flirt with Meloni and try to get her support. It is the left that offers an alternative in the form of the New Popular Front but also on the streets.

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