Is the National Rally, increasingly popular among women, a threat to their rights?

“ The far right is not good news for women », alerts Anne-Cécile Malifert in a letter sent after the announcement of the dissolution of the National Assembly. The president of the Women’s Foundation is concerned, like other feminist voices and associations, about the threat that the increase in the number of National Rally deputies in the Assembly would pose to women’s rights. “ All far-right governments have been keen to undermine feminist progress », recalls the association citing among others Poland, Italy and even the Brazilwhether on questions such as “ sexual and reproductive rights, professional equality, access to healthcare and public services, violence against women, subsidies to associations, etc. “. She calls for a union of the left for the legislative elections of June 30 and July 7.

Sunday June 10, in the European elections, almost as many women as men chose the RN candidate, according to a Ipsos study. “ This is completely new, points out Erwan Lecœur, sociologist specializing in the far right. “ Before, during the National Front, there was always a gap of 5 to 6% between men and women. Since 2017, things have changed », he analyzes. The RN therefore speaks to women, and more and more. Erwan Lecœur worked on the RN electorate: “ During qualitative studies in 2023-2024, I saw the seduction that Marine Le Pen operated on abstaining women aged 30 to 40, he remembers. They adored Marine Le Pen who embodied this strong woman who does not let herself be walked on by men who want to impose this or that on her. »

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Outgoing MP RN Hélène Laporte and former vice-president of the National Assembly brushes aside concerns: “ We have always protected women’s rights », she is indignant, pointing out in passing the accusations of violence to which certain members of left-wing parties are subject. “ I am a woman myself and I could not have joined a party that does not respect women’s rights », she continues, also highlighting the fact that Marine Le Pen, a woman, embodies the party.

“ It’s not because we’re a woman that we’re going to defend feminist policies. », replies Domitille de Goys, of the collective #NousToutes, who calls for “ to block » to the RN « due to sexism, racism but also the anti-social and anti-ecological measures of the party “. For the activist, the fear of seeing women’s rights in particular go backwards is very real: “ We have several examples around us, such as in Poland or Italy, which show that when you are a woman, you do not have achievements but only achievements and that you can come back from them. So we are afraid of backlash [retour de bâton conservateur, NDLR]. »

The targeted female electorate

For several years, the far-right party has been able to smooth out its discourse and its image to reach this part of the population, with Marine Le Pen not hesitating to present herself as “ a feminist who does not express hostility towards men “. On March 4, party president Jordan Bardella welcomed the constitutionalization of abortion. In 2022, Marine Le Pen, then a presidential candidate, split a “letter to the French” In Le Figaro in which she affirmed her “ sensitivity to the feminist cause “. She said she wanted to commit domestic violence “ a criminal priority “. She also mentioned the “ gynecological deserts » or the recognition of “ endometriosis “, the importance of better supporting “ single-parent families “… A declaration also included in one of the points of her presidential program where she promised to “ double support for single mothers raising children while strengthening controls to avoid fraud “.

“ The RN candidate immediately targeted the female electorate, analyzed, in 2023, the sociologist specializing in the extreme right Nonna Mayer in an article from the Journal du CNRS. She presented herself as a modern, professionally and politically emancipated French woman with whom women can identify. She softened, “de-extremized” her image, and chose to present the RN as a party which defends the rights of women, as well as those of LGBT+ and Jews, in the face of the threat of radical Islamism, thus exploiting feminism to its profit. »

If women turn to the RN vote, it is because, “ like many people in society, they have the impression of no longer being listened to and have the impression that they will find people at the RN who will be able to change France », Estimates Domitille De Goys.

We do not yet know the RN’s program for the upcoming legislative elections, but feminist associations are calling not to be lured by this new progressive facade of a party which has long worked to repeal the right to abortion (Even if Marine Le Pen claims today that she is no longer against voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion), today, during her 2012 campaign, she said she wanted abortion to be defunded and declared herself unfavorable to it. extension of the legal duration of abortion, adopted since) and always defended a conservative vision of the family.

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Before the European elections, the Feminist Strike collective denounced in a column published in the newspaper Libération the exploitation of women’s rights by the National Rally for electoral purposes. On the question of the right to abortion for example, if the president of the RN welcomes the constitutionalization of abortion, “ it’s out of pure political opportunism », he denounces. Hélène Laporte recalls that, like her, the RN mainly voted for the constitutionalization of abortion last March – out of 88 deputies, 46 voted for, 11 against, 20 abstained and 11 were absent during the Congress in Versailles – , the RN deputy arguing for respect “ everyone’s beliefs “. But, the collective reveals, in November 2020 and November 2021, RN elected officials opposed a resolution condemning Poland which almost completely banned abortion, although it was very widely adopted. Hélène Laporte, then a European MP, herself voted against. And as recently as April 11, they abstained on the introduction of the right to abortion in the European Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Speeches but few actions

So from speeches to actions, there is a step that RN elected officials rarely take. If on the vote on the resolution recognizing endometriosis as a long-term condition, the RN followed in the footsteps of the majority, it is clear that the elected representatives of the party often oppose or abstain when it comes to to advance women’s rights. As in 2018, when the adoption of the Schiappa law, strengthening the fight against sexual and gender-based violence, where they had been conspicuous by their absence, including Marine Le Pen. Only one of them, Ludovic Pajot, was there on the day of the vote, recalls The World in an article deciphering the program of the RN candidate in the light of women’s rights. And he abstained.

And the examples are numerous: last year, during a bill aimed at strengthening women’s access to responsibilities in the public service, 35 RN deputies voted against and one abstained. However, the law aimed to accelerate the feminization of the senior civil service by increasing the obligatory quota of first female appointments to 50% and established an index of professional equality in the civil service. The site Datan.fr recalls in his decryption of the vote: “ Already during the first reading, the RN deputies, “not convinced that women are harmed in the public service””, had voted against the text. For her part, Hélène Laporte defends herself, criticizing the fact of “ wanting to put as many women as men at all costs “.

Before the elections, theAvaaz association had looked into the votes of elected RN representatives in the European Parliament on these questions, noting that the “ posture » of the RN on these questions did not resist “ upon examination of their actions “. On the subject of sexual harassment, in 2021, RN MEPs voted against a resolution providing for training against sexual harassment within European institutions. Then a European MP herself, Hélène Laporte voted against.

“ Even as Jordan Bardella campaigns on access to cheaper electricity, his entire group abstains in September 2023 on a text encouraging us to take into account the gender dimension in the energy crisis », Also analyzes the NGO in the note communicated to RFI.

We can also cite, in May 2023, the abstention of the RN on the European directive “on transparency and equal pay” which aims to apply equal pay between women and men for identical work or of the same value. . And this is not an error since in 2020, RN MEPs had already voted against or abstained on a resolution against the pay gap between men and women.

The cause of women used against immigration

On the violence? In 2023, after years of pressure, Parliament finally ratifies the Istanbul Convention, a key text on this issue because it is the first legally binding international instrument in the fight against violence against women and girls . The RN deputies abstain.

“ We cannot be told that at the National Rally we are against women’s rights. It is to protect this freedom of women that we fight, for example, against Islamism », argument again Hélène Laporte. In speeches and programs, the subject of the fight against violence is often addressed through street harassment and linked to immigration, one of the RN’s favorite themes. In her “letter to French women”, Marine Le Pen promised 2022: “ In addition to heavy criminal penalties, I will register street harassers in the sex offender file and decide to expel foreigners who engage in these outrageous practices. “.

“ There is a sort of “racialization” of sexist and sexual violence in the RN, denounces Domitille De Goys of #NousToutes. He manipulates the figures and explains that he is going to protect women from sexist and sexual violence by attacking the migrants who are responsible for that. While, according to studies, 91% of victims knew their attacker. »

But the speech is meaningful, according to Erwan Lecoeur: “ What makes the National Rally attract more and more women in concrete terms is that women consider that the RN is a party which will protect them against Islamists and Islam, the return of moral order. And all those who question secularism », Says the specialist.

But there is no question of making Muslims a scapegoat, defends the MP. “ Protecting women’s rights does not mean pointing the finger at this person or that person, but not hiding the truth and seeing what is happening. »