“RN’s discourse on ecology has always been characterized by denial or indifference”

Pierre Madelin, essayist and translator, is the author of many books on environmental issues, including put an end to civilization? Primitivism and collapse (Eco Society, 2020). He just posted Eco-fascist temptation. Ecology and the extreme right (Ecosociety, 272 pp., €18).

Recently, the National Action (RN) wants to occupy the field of ecology. The president of the party, Jordan Bardella, said recently: “We should not leave ecology on the left.” What characterizes the new RN discourse on the environment?

Faced with changes in society, the RN spent several years working on various issues that she had previously neglected. It’s about women’s rights, the LGBT cause, and now ecology. This recovery is essentially due to opportunism. The majority of the French are concerned about global warming, the battle of sensitivities has been won by ecology, and its avoidance risks discrediting the RN with part of its electorate. Therefore, this desire, today, to block violations.

The party promotes localism, with Jordan Bardella praising, for example, French agricultural production, which he presents as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from imports. Therefore, relying on territories will make it possible to solve the ecological crisis. Localism serves as a gateway to the identity and nationalist themes that the RN attaches itself to.

Criticism of renewable energy is another important element of the far-right party’s new discourse on the environment. Wind turbines are particularly targeted. They are opposed to localism, because territories will be established without consultation. On the contrary, nuclear power is protected, it represents in the eyes of the RN the foundation on which French energy sovereignty will sit and makes possible the decarbonization of the economy. We see there that RN remains strongly imbued with its liberal, productivist and techno-solutionist background, which has historically defined its relationship with ecology.

What exactly was Jean-Marie Le Pen’s speech on ecology?

He is generally hostile to environmentalism, sometimes with climatosceptic overtones. For example, in 2017, he stated that “without global warming, we will die of cold.” In another genre, in 1989 he compared the Environmentalist Party to a watermelon and explained that its members were green on the outside, red on the inside. Therefore, RN’s discourse on ecology has always been marked by rejection or indifference.