The Impact of the Front National During President Hollande's Term

This paper explores the Front National's (FN) political impact in France during the term of President François Hollande (2012-2017). This assessment will focus on the French policy of management of inflows and immigrant integration. Past research ranked the FN's contagion effects on immigration control as very significant during the first half of President Nicolas Sarkozy's preceding term. This investigation will assess the extent to which this trend was observed during the centre-left presidency. ERPs' political impact has been envisaged as the ability to promote a policy outcome that would have not been otherwise observed. Whereas this political process has been associated with formal or informal co-option of ERPs, this paper will conceive ERPs' contagion effects as the capability to foster policy inaction as well. The FN's impact is associated with the centre-left government's dealignment from the 'grand bargain' on immigration set by President Mitterrand in the 1980s and the French Republican paradigm. Furthermore, this paper explores the interdependence between immigration and foreign policy, as the FN's contagion effects strained the Franco-German relationship at the EU level in the context of the asylum crisis.