TOULON, France — If you want to understand the far right’s appeal in France, or perhaps what could happen if the National Rally party gets a chance to govern, this southern port city is the place to go.
And yet, people in Toulon will readily tell you, the period of far-right rule here did not go well. After six years of culture wars and economic stagnation, voters kicked those leaders out of office.
The National Rally party, guided by Marine Le Pen and her protégé Jordan Bardella, portrays itself as a grown-up organization with little resemblance to the National Front that governed Toulon and was led nationally by Le Pen’s father, convicted Holocaust denier Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Sébastien Soulé, the National Rally candidate here, said that the far right’s failed governing experiment in this city “might be scary” to potential voters but that people shouldn’t draw too many lessons from that period. The party leaders “didn’t have the support they needed,” he said, “and, unlike today, they were not ready.”
Critics say the Toulon experience should still serve as a warning for the country.
The results of the Toulon experiment
In France’s turbulent history, Toulon has often been at the forefront. Young Napoleon Bonaparte rose to fame here when he besieged the city, which at the time was a royalist bastion. When the Third Reich wanted to take over the French fleet during World War II, Vichy France dealt the Nazis a blow by sinking its own ships in the Bay of Toulon.
It has remained a defense-minded city. It serves as the primary port of the French navy and nuclear attack submarine fleet. Toy stores display Lego models of the Toulon-based Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier in their windows.
But residents are less proud of the decommissioned ships that rust away in the distance. Heavily bombed in World War II and rapidly reconstructed in the 1950s, Toulon’s seafront is no match for the chic promenades of Cannes, Nice and Saint-Tropez.
“There was always a lot of drama here — strong drama,” said Charles Berling, the head of the Liberté theater in Toulon. “And it culminated in the National Front.”
The party won here in 1995 on promises to end government corruption, impose law and order, and revive the economy. It benefited from frustration with the incumbents and divisions among its opponents — much like the polarized and fragmented political landscape of France now.
The local election campaign was somewhat less xenophobic than the party was at the national level. But it included the slogan “The French first in Toulon,” a nod to a policy of giving preference to French citizens for education, housing and other benefits. “National priority” remains core to the National Rally platform today.
Political sociologist John Veugelers documented the fortunes of Toulon under far-right rule. He describes how National Front Mayor Jean-Marie Le Chevallier redirected grants from progressive associations to politically friendly ones and from minority populations to White ones. The mayor hired party members as city employees and appointed allies to government boards, including making his wife head of a youth social service agency. He also charged into the culture wars, vetoing an award for a prominent Jewish author, politicizing an annual book fair and pushing out the director of a local theater.
Yet Le Chevallier wasn’t able to deliver on his party’s central pledges. His policies had little impact on crime or unemployment. Urban renewal projects he promoted were left unfinished.
While the National Front was in power, Veugelers writes, Toulon became an outcast city. Artists shunned it. Regional and national government subsidies dried up, heightening the financial strain.
And rather than cleaning up corruption, Le Chevallier was found guilty of campaign finance violations and, with his wife, guilty of breach of trust and misappropriation. Le Chevallier left the party, having lost the backing of Le Pen, who later sued him, accusing him of siphoning funds.
“They had a narrow vision of politics,” Veugelers told The Washington Post. “But the main problem was that they weren’t competent.”
Is Macron betting on incompetence?
President Emmanuel Macron called the National Assembly elections after National Rally trounced his alliance in European Parliament elections on June 9 with more than double the votes. He said he wanted to reaffirm his party’s mandate. But even his allies wonder why he took the risk when the far right was flying high.
“No one understands it,” said Yannick Chenevard, the candidate for Macron’s party in Toulon, adding that there was no need to upend the status quo in Parliament. “It’s irrational.”
Chenevard and other candidates were caught so off guard that, days before the election’s first round, hardly any campaign posters were on display in Toulon. “Bardella 2027,” read a lone graffiti on a wall overlooking Toulon’s vast military base.
Among political analysts, there is a theory that perhaps Macron anticipated that his party would lose, but calculated that the best way to discredit National Rally ahead of presidential elections in 2027 would be to give it a chance to govern, as happened in Toulon.
“Macron doesn’t believe in the political know-how of National Rally,” said Michael Aknine, a 53-year-old jazz teacher in Toulon who said he might vote for the president’s party. Macron might prefer sharing power with the far right now — what’s known in France as “cohabitation” — rather than paving the way for a landslide victory in presidential and lower house elections in a few years, he said. “He is anything but naive.”
If National Rally wins an absolute majority after the second round of elections on July 7, it would be free to introduce its bills. But if it only gains a plurality, forcing it to seek alliances, it risks getting embroiled in parliamentary turf wars. Bardella has already ruled out becoming prime minister in that case.
Political analyst Virginie Martin said National Rally has professionalized in recent years, but would struggle to implement its party program amid France’s mounting financial problems. “Bardella would arrive at the worst possible moment. Disappointment would almost be assured,” she said.
Toulon is willing to give the far right another chance
In those European Parliament elections, National Rally secured 37 percent of the vote in Toulon — almost three times the showing of Macron’s coalition and the best performance across France’s 20 biggest cities.
This bodes well for Soulé. This is his first run for the National Assembly. Nevertheless, he is well known in Toulon. A main character in the divisive French movie “Bac Nord” is based on Soulé, who became a suspect in a drug trafficking and racketeering scandal in 2012 while working as a police officer in Marseille’s suburbs. Soulé was acquitted in 2021.
He said his goal now is to make the country “rediscover the values of France — around Europe.”
This leaves much room for interpretation.
Charley Lenzini, 89, said he will vote for National Rally this weekend after feeling encouraged by its more moderate rhetoric. His friends think he has gone mad, acknowledged Lenzini, a French citizen who was born in French Algeria and — until recently — was a socialist.
“If someone needs to come to France to eat because there’s no food, that’s understandable,” he said. “But allowing him to then bring his father, grandfather and cousins, that’s not normal.”
Veugelers, the political sociologist, said support for the far right has always been strong among Toulon’s large community of “pieds-noirs” like Lenzini. The National Front’s warnings of French decline resonated with those who experienced economic hardship and a sense of betrayal after Algeria gained independence in 1962. “That subculture is still alive in Toulon,” Veugelers said.
The new surge of support for the far right here may be explained by swelling concerns over immigration, security and inflation.
Centrist mayor Josée Massi said Toulon has changed dramatically since the far right was removed from power in 2001. She points to a revitalized city center, art galleries, artisanal coffee shops and fountains adorned with lush plant arrangements. “But people forget what happened,” she said. “When the economy is not doing well, you need a scapegoat.”
European election exit polls suggest that nationally, concerns over migration and cost of living are up 11 and 7 percent, respectively, compared with five years ago.
While many left-wing voters in 2022’s presidential election overcame their frustration with Macron and backed him against Marine Le Pen anyway, some worry that the far right has a clearer path to power now.
Left-leaning theater director Berling was among a group of French celebrities who publicly endorsed Macron over the far right in 2022. But despite heavy government spending to combat inflation, Berling says many of his theater employees still struggle to pay their bills.
Perhaps even worse, Macron is portraying opponents to the far left as equally dangerous as the far right, Berling said.
“He betrayed us,” he said.
