Populism in the French Party System

Abstract

In recent years populism has reappeared in France in two distinct ways. First, it has re-emerged as a defamatory term applied to those individual political actors or groups characterised by demagogic rhetoric and the indictment of the traditional political elites. Thus, the leader of the Front national Jean-Marie Le Pen was immediately and systematically referred to as a populist, particularly because of his tendency to criticise the regime and traditional politicians. Secondly, in the 1995 presidential campaign the term was applied to the hitherto mainstream politician Jacques Chirac. Interestingly, this use of populism as a ‘disqualificatory’ label (Taguieff 1997) is in marked contrast with the understanding of the word in other contexts or other frameworks, particularly in the United States, where populism often constitutes a common reference point for a large number of different politicians and parties (see Kazin 1995; Hertzke 1993).