Paris (AFP) – US President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement is cosying up to France’s far right as part of an ideological offensive abroad since his return to office, with French authorities worried about its influence ahead of key elections. The warning comes as far-right parties are on the march across Europe, including in France, where the National Rally (RN) party sees its best shot at winning the presidency in 2027.
While the French authority in charge of digital interference has not detected any coordinated campaign from the “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) sphere, there is “real concern” about its influence on domestic politics, a security source told AFP on condition of anonymity. As part of that influence, Kevin Roberts — president of the powerful Heritage Foundation and a key influence on Trump’s policy decisions — earlier this year visited Paris to speak to what he called “leaders of the French right”, whom he declined to name. Roberts said during the trip in May that, while the foundation did not officially represent the US government, it could still knit together a network of ideologically aligned groups.
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“We connect the dots between people in certain countries who are working on similar policies, who want an alliance — formal or informal — with American friends,” Roberts told reporters. “We can resurrect the spirit of the Western civilization,” he added.
– ‘Common causes’ – France’s leading far-right force, the RN, sees common ground with the US conservative movement, as promoted by organisations such as the Heritage Foundation. “We can relate to topics such as the fight against immigration and border protection,” as well as denouncing “woke” culture, said Louis Aliot, the vice president of the RN, who attended Trump’s inauguration and a tribute to top MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk in the US state of Colorado after his assassination in September. But the MAGA movement “is part of a national dynamic that combines patriotism and — in a way — religion, which is completely foreign to us,” he said, adding his party wished to remain “an independent voice”.
A French diplomatic source said that France’s main far-right party appeared to be less porous to MAGA ideas than its counterparts in some other parts of Europe. “In Germany and the United Kingdom, it’s easier” than in France because nationalist parties, such as Reform UK and the AfD, “are more aligned with the MAGA agenda,” the source said, asking not to be named because they were not authorised to speak to the press.
A poll this week predicted RN leader Jordan Bardella would become France’s president in 2027, regardless of who his opponent is in the second round. While he is not the party’s official candidate, the 30-year-old politician is very popular. Marine Le Pen, who has vied for the position three times already, has been barred from running after a graft conviction. However, she has appealed, with a retrial expected early next year.
MAGA influence may be making inroads with fringe parts of France’s far right. In early November, Marion Marechal, president of a French far-right party in the European parliament called Identity-Liberties, met Alex Bruesewitz, a 28-year-old media adviser often credited with helping Trump return to the White House. After the meeting, he called Marechal, 35, “a very impressive young woman” with a “bright future.” Marechal told AFP: “Freedom on social media has helped to establish this contact, this bridge, to strengthen each other to advance our common causes.”
– ‘Laboratory for what works’ – The US conservative movement is prioritising contact with far-right European movements more overtly than in Trump’s first term, said Nina Jankowicz, a specialist on disinformation who worked in the Department of Homeland Security under president Joe Biden. “We saw some of this kind of happening under the surface,” said Jankowicz, “but now it’s official policy.” Vice President JD Vance has castigated Germany for restrictions against the far-right AfD, and the US has criticised its top ally Britain for penalties over online posts that targeted migrants.
Centrist EU lawmaker Nathalie Loiseau is among those in France concerned over the US conservative movement’s growing influence. “The language used by the European far right is very often copied and pasted from what we hear from MAGA,” she told AFP, adding they argued, for example, that regulating social media platforms would amount to censorship of free speech. European far-right parties, she said, also demanded a minute’s silence in the EU Parliament for Kirk, despite him not being European. Sarah Knafo, an MEP from France’s small far-right Reconquest party who pushed for the minute’s silence, told AFP the French far right faces challenges similar to those in the US. “For us, they are a laboratory for what works and what doesn’t,” she said.
© 2024 AFP
