How to Beat the Far Right: Lessons From France

FEATURING JEAN BRICMONT - The results of French elections on Sunday yielded a shocking win for the New Popular Front (NFP), a coalition of leftwing parties that had joined to beat the surging far right, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) party. The RN had a huge showing in the first round of elections held a week earlier. But, by the end of the second round, the NFP had scored the largest number of seats in the French Parliament, with incumbent Emmanuel Macron’s centrist wing winning the second largest number, and Le Pen coming in a close third. With no clear majority, prospects for a hung parliament are high. Still, France’s left offers lessons for the U.S. where turmoil within the Democratic Party is threatening to yield a win for fascist authoritarianism.