French Socialist Party’s labor reform boosts far-right National Front - World Socialist Web Site
▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/05/26/nati-m26.html
Throughout the movement against the law that began in March, the FN, which boasts of being “the first party of France” and the party “of the people” representing the masses, abstained from any visible presence in the streets and from commentary in the media. The FN does not have a precise position on the law, often stating it is “against” it and criticising certain of its provisions. It participated in one, carefully-staged right-wing protest against “anti-cop hatred,” which enjoyed PS support.
Here the FN and the ruling class resorted to a proven strategy. For 25 years, at every major struggle of workers and youth against austerity measures from right-wing or PS governments, the FN disappears from the political scene. The purpose of this manoeuvre is to avert a clash between the working class and the neofascists, and to preserve the FN’s entirely false populist veneer as a defender of the “people.” After every defeat of the workers organised by the unions and their allies, however, the FN’s position inside the political establishment emerges reinforced.
The press noted this “anomaly.” Under the title “On social aspects, the FN is silent,” France Inter wrote: “While the left and right tear each other apart on the El Khomri law, the FN has disappeared ... after months of media saturation, admittedly one is a little surprised to not hear anything from the extreme right.”