(Adnkronos) – “The decision by Marine Le Pen to run again for the French Republic’s presidency not only aims to create a confrontation between the people and justice, but also marks her refusal to pass the torch to her protégé, Jordan Bardella, who seemed capable of broadening consensus for a union of the right. Marine Le Pen, in fact, wants to embody the protest-oriented part of her electorate, giving voice to those who feel unrepresented by institutions and governing parties.” Jean Pierre Darnis, professor of Contemporary History at Luiss in Rome and History of Franco-Italian relations at the University of Nice, writes this in an analysis for Il Foglio, in which he emphasizes that “French political current events are also intertwined with cultural and social trends.”
“In France, the film of the moment is undoubtedly ‘La Bataille de Gaulle’, directed by Antonin Baudry. This historical saga retraces the epic of Free France during the Second World War, starting from Charles de Gaulle’s call to resistance up to the liberation of Paris. The film highlights the themes of defending the Republic, not only celebrating heroic figures like General Leclerc or the resistance coordinator Jean Moulin, but also showing how the reconquest of France was based, at least in an initial phase, on the contribution of the colonial troops of the time: African, Maghrebi, and even anti-Nazi fighters like the legendary Nueve, the ninth company of the Chad infantry regiment, composed almost entirely of former Spanish republicans,” recalls Darnis, who then speaks of the other phenomenon “that marks daily French life, the support for the national football team: beyond the final result, the journey of Kylian Mbappé and his teammates in the World Cup appears exemplary in several respects. From a sporting point of view, there is not only an accumulation of individual talents, but also a collective dynamic that offers a particularly positive image of France in 2026… The French National Team, talented and responsible, thus expresses a concrete and decisive opposition to racism, offering the image of a France that claims its roots in colonization and immigration.”
“From this point of view too, it is an identity manifestation that refutes the claims of the Rassemblement National and all formations that make the rejection of migrants their central point. We can therefore observe how a dynamic around French identity is underway. If the Le Pen party, for years, has had the fixed idea of defending a French identity that rejects the migratory and post-colonial component, France also expresses contrary dynamics, in which the dimension of an extra-European history is valued. This offers the great advantage of renewing a debate on identity long monopolized by ultranationalists. The old-nationalist vision of French identity, the one always defended by the Le Pens, is therefore not hegemonic in the French context – concludes the historian – Indeed, it can reasonably be argued that it is relatively minoritarian in a country driven by football. This represents a relevant ideological indication in the context of the presidential elections, also hinting at the risks run by a Rassemblement National that remains inexhaustibly embodied by an outdated figure like Marine Le Pen.”
