Contrasting Fortunes, Differing Futures? The Rise (and Fall) of the Front National and the British National Party
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Abstract
Since the early 1980s the Front National (FN) has been a significant feature on the French political landscape, performing consistently in national, local and European electoral settings. The party has consolidated its position in terms of votes cast as the third largest in France with Marine Le Pen polling over 18% of the vote in the first round of the 2012 presidential elections. More recently the party were victorious in the 2014 European elections, polling just short of 25% and underlining Marine Le Pen's status as the ‘leader’ of the contemporary Far Right in Europe. This progression is in contrast to the electoral evolution of the British National Party (BNP), which, under the leadership of Nick Griffin, has struggled to make an impact in the national electoral context and, after reaching a peak at the 2009 European elections where it won two seats in the Strasbourg chamber, fell away in the 2014 contest polling just over 1% of the vote. By concentrating primarily on ‘supply-side’ theories of the rise of the Far Right, the purpose of this paper is to account for the dramatically contrasting electoral fortunes of the two parties and to explain the electoral longevity and durability of the FN in contrast to the BNP. It examines the importance of ‘supply-side’ variables such as national tradition, political opportunity structures, charismatic leadership and the role of the media in order to account for their contrasting fortunes. In short, the article aims to contribute to the burgeoning debate about the rise (and durability) of Far Right parties in Europe.
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Date
2014
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Research Projects
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Keywords
Front national (FN), British National Party (BNP), Charismatic leadership, Supply-side theories of politics
Citation
Startin, Nicholas. “Contrasting Fortunes, Differing Futures? The Rise (and Fall) of the Front National and the British National Party.” Modern & Contemporary France 22 (3): 277–99. 2014.