Countering the Radical Right in Local Politics

This paper evaluates the relative importance of judicial, civil society, and political-institutional responses to the far right at the local level. It does so by investigating the case of Toulon, France, which in 1995 distinguished itself by becoming the largest city of post-war Europe to elect a far-right mayor and city council. Studying measures to counter the National Front of Le Pen in a city it governed between 1995 and 2001 provides a unique opportunity for understanding militant democracy in a high-stakes context. In more detail, my paper tracks the different responses to the National Front over time (from its election in 1995 until the 2017 French parliamentary elections) by actors in: (1) the judiciary; (2) different levels of government (municipal, departmental, regional, and national); and (3) civil society (voluntary associations, cultural elites, civil rights organisations, and anti-racist movements). The evidence comes from a mixed-methods study that relies on interviews; field observation; archival research; and statistical analysis of survey data collected by the author over three French elections. This material provides the basis for a book -- at the intersection between History, Sociology, and Political Science – now under contract with Oxford University Press and titled Empire’s Legacy: The Roots of the Far Right in Contemporary France.