Rise of the extreme right: these French people from Quebec from minorities who do not want to leave
31.3% of the votes. The historic record of the National Rally (RN) in the last European elections in France, followed by the decision of President Macron to dissolve the National Assembly, had the effect of a political earthquake whose tremors were felt as far as Quebec. Several French people living here, racialized or queer, express their concerns.
The rise of the extreme right is not over in France. After the major defeat of the presidential party in the European elections on 9 June 2024, the shock of the announcement of the dissolution of the National Assembly led to a lightning campaign. In Canada, French nationals are called upon to vote to elect their new deputies to the Assembly the June 29 and July 6, 2024 (in France, the elections took place on 30 June and 7 July).
In a few days, some French people went from stupor to fear. Coming from immigration, members of the LGBTQI+ community, or members of minority religious communities (mainly Muslims and Jews), all share very concrete concerns. Recognizing that they are the prime targets of the policies advocated by the party of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, these French people fear the consequences of their hypothetical arrival in Matignon. Traditionally, the president appoints a prime minister from the majority group in the National Assembly.
In Quebec, even if an ocean separates them from France, French people of color or belonging to a marginalized community share the same fears. The number of French people registered on consular registers in Quebec and Montreal has almost doubled since 2005. Despite less favorable conditions than between 1995 and 2002 — a period during which the French were the number one immigrant in Quebec — between 3,000 and 4,000 settle there every year as permanent residents. A number to which must be added students, holders of temporary permits or working vacation permits, according to the Consulate General of France in Quebec.
We met four of them, based in Montreal. They tell us about their doubts about a possible return to France, or the reasons why they say that their life is now here.
They leave France for Quebec
Sarah Naciri, 21, originally from Val d'Oise in the suburbs of Paris, comes from an Algerian-Moroccan family. His assertive personality and deep voice give him a surprising maturity for his age. Following a first university exchange experience in New Brunswick, Sarah returned to France before returning to Canada. She moved to Quebec in August 2023, to continue her higher education. “In Paris, I was studying at a very elitist university, the values were the opposite of mine. Arriving in New Brunswick, I discovered a university system where I finally felt fulfilled. My potential was more recognized there. I said to myself “ok, for my master's degree I absolutely have to leave”. So I took a chance and chose Quebec,” she summarizes.
Naomie Jiminiga, 19, naturally shines. A big smile appears on her face when we meet her. Her voice, however, always in tune with her emotions, lets her sensitivity shine through. The young woman grew up in Normandy, a region in northwestern France, marked by a strong vote in favor of the extreme right in the European elections on June 9, 2024. Franco-Togolese, Naomi explains that she grew up in a region that was not very diverse. “It is very conservative in Normandy. People are closed-minded. Men are still often perceived as superior to women and the housewife model is still highly valued.”
In January 2023, Naomie made the big leap to Quebec to begin her university studies in communication. According to her, the social contrast is striking: “When I arrived, I became aware of the daily racism I was experiencing in Normandy and that I had ended up trivializing! ” she exclaims. Despite her new life in La Belle Province, social networks keep her in touch with her old friends. A link that she did not hesitate to cut in the face of the “disappointing” remarks of some members of her circle in the run-up to the European elections.
“I saw my friends and family post comments like, 'Vote for the extreme right! ”. Others said “You have to fire immigrants” or “you have to stop letting these aggressive immigrants live in France”, she shared in an annoyed tone. “And these are people I know, with whom I grew up what! ”
Leïla Fayet, 56 years old and of Franco-Algerian origin, grew up in Lorraine, near Germany, before moving to the south of France and then settling in the Paris region. She has lived in Quebec with her husband and two children for 18 years. It was the curiosity of the language that brought them to Quebec in 2006. “We were fascinated by the presence of the French language in the middle of an English-speaking continent,” she says. She and her family also wanted to be closer to nature.
For her part, Marie, 31, the happy spouse of her teenage love, comes from Bordeaux. She made the choice of Quebec to protect their little boy born from an ART (medically assisted reproduction) performed in Portugal and from latent homophobia in France, of which she was too often a victim. “We returned to France after an experience of two years in WHV here. We got married and had our son, which caused me to lose the relationship with my mother and brother. I come from the middle class in Bordeaux, which is very attached to institutions such as marriage and the family, and who did not accept the situation at all,” she confides.
The one who runs a travel agency specializing in the organization of Road Trip Made to measure recalls an event that she considers particularly indicative of the intolerance of French society: “Our son spent a year in daycare in Bordeaux and parents asked that two children's books be removed from the library. The first was about a mixed pair, the second about a pair of male storks... It's incredible how far it goes! We lasted a year and said to ourselves “no, that's enough.” Marie and his wife therefore made the choice of Quebec and intend to make a living there. A decision that the recent political events in France only reinforce.
Record of the extreme right in the European elections: “I took that as an insult”
For Sarah, Marie, Naomie and Leïla, the results of the European elections were inevitable. “Honestly, I expected it. The RN has already been rising in the polls for some time, whether for European elections, legislative elections or even the presidential elections. It was predictable”, assures Sarah. The same observation was made by an exasperated Leïla: “It's not a surprise but it's shocking because, even when you prepare for it, it's a hell of a blow to take! ”
If they are not surprised, they perceive these results as a new rejection, a denial of their French identity. “I grew up in France, and it hurts me to see so many people voting for an openly racist party, sighs Sarah. Islamophobia is real in France, and being Muslim — this is also one of the reasons why I came to Canada — when I meet new people, I always dread to say that I am Muslim. People have a lot of prejudices...”, she confides.
Naomie, the youngest member of the group, also shares this feeling: “I took that as an insult. As a black woman, even though I am French, voting for the extreme right is telling me to leave my own country simply because of my skin color. For me, the extreme right is a party driven by hate. It is not only a desire “to expel the aggressors””, she insists.
By replacing the stigma of skin color with that of sexual orientation, Marie recounts the same feeling of rejection. “I am a woman, I am a lesbian, and I have a child. It's exactly the same pattern as racism, I was one of the first to be affected... At the time, I had the feeling that everyone in my country was actually against me. These are no longer isolated cases.” With 93% of municipalities placing the extreme right in the lead, the French discovered a map covered in navy blue when the results of the European elections were revealed on 9 June last.
Over the past few years, she claims to have felt the country topple, the last dikes fall and hateful words or acts are becoming more and more common, including in public. “During the Bordeaux Pride in 2020 we were attacked by extremists, guys who climbed onto the docks to throw smoke bombs at us, she is offended. Same as that of Paris! We left 2.5 hours late because the extreme right was blocking the motorcade. I started to feel more secure afterwards.”
Despite everything, these five adopted Montreal women, who intend to use their right to vote as of June 29, are making the effort to understand what is pushing some of their fellow citizens to turn to the RN.
Unemployment, inflation, deterioration of public services... the anger of the French
According to these women interviewed, the rise of the extreme right is in part due to a widespread fatigue with traditional politics. Sarah, who has a bachelor's degree in political science at the Paris University Panthéon Assas, explains: “I feel like it's inevitable. People are fed up with the current system, which is running out of breath. Populists promise change and, unfortunately, it's often the far right. We are voting for them, because we see that the system is stuck and we want to reform it.”
“It may also be a way for French people to say “Well me, maybe I'm not racist, maybe I don't subscribe to these ideas, but I want to shock. I am fed up. So I vote RN.” And then it works. It's a way of shocking, of saying that we want change at all costs,” says Sarah. Naomie agrees: “I have the impression that everyone is fed up with living conditions in France, and so we are giving free rein to those who already belong to the extreme right. Nevertheless, there was a lot of abstention.”
During the last European elections, France recorded an abstention rate of 48.51%. The economic and social context of the country, which has an unemployment rate of 7.5%, would be an essential factor in understanding the inevitable rise in the RN vote.
Leïla also makes a striking comparison: “I was talking to a Jewish friend who lived through the Second World War and she shared her concerns with me. She thinks that there is currently an atmosphere similar to 39-45 in France, not in terms of Nazis. Not that. But in terms of misinformation, suspicion, poverty, with the speech “I don't like you, you, the other one” Then the rise of the extreme right,” she recalls.
Sarah, who speaks with her hands, accuses the demagogic discourse of the RN: “Surely there are women who consider themselves feminists and who voted for Jordan Bardella because they did not inquire. The French heard Jordan Bardella say: well, we're going to get all the Arabs and Blacks out of France. They said “OK, immigration will fix everything: let's go.” And they're not going to look any further. Unfortunately, the National Rally seduces with this speech.”
Naomie is of the same opinion. “Imagine, she starts with a stoic look, if every day you hear that your children are not safe because immigrants kill; because immigrants are aggressors; and that if you are poor it is because we give immigrants too much money...” She paused, then resumed in a dismayed tone: “The French are bound to go after immigrants because they think they have found the solution to their problem.”
These women therefore see support for the far right as a manifestation of the desire for change and of frustration with a system that is perceived as stagnant. But they fear what would happen if the extreme right came to Matignon.
“France really has a problem to solve before I go back there”
While each expatriation is unique, many French people are looking for a better quality of life, professional opportunities that they do not always have in their own country, better remuneration... But many people leave for France again after a few years. The lack of loved ones, the disillusionment of some with the Quebec health system, or the existence of xenophobia that is very real even if it is not expressed in the same way, are among the reasons for this early return.
Could the possible accession of the RN to power in a month, or during the next presidential elections scheduled for 2027, change the situation? When Naomie and Marie are asked if they plan to return to France one day, they say a resounding no.
“I am very afraid of what will happen for the queer community if we switch to the extreme right! In Italy, when Giorgia Meloni took power, she took the birth certificates of the kids who were born through PMA and she removed [from these acts] all the mothers who had not carried the child. In my case, I could lose all the parenting rights of my son since my wife carried him. It's horrible! ”, says Marie. The RN had in fact voted against the Taubira law legalizing “marriage for all”, which was finally adopted with a relatively small majority.
Having left to enjoy her family life more freely, she does not plan to return to France. “I prefer to stay here. We want a second child, and here it's easier! We won't have a problem, we won't need to fight. I'm 31, I've been through a lot of complicated things, and now I just want a normal life where people accept us without us having to fight for everything,” she explains.
“When I arrived in Canada, I was nostalgic for France. But the more I compare the evolution of Canada to that of France, the more I tell myself that France really has a problem to solve before I go back there,” says Naomie, shaking her head. “Here, I feel safe, whereas in France, I was confronted with racist people and insults simply because I am a woman. I don't want to go back to my own country; it's almost dangerous. It's serious.”
Leïla and Sarah are more torn. After a short moment of reflection, Leïla evokes several painful experiences: “I have lived in several regions of France and I have often encountered extremists. We are really risking our lives in front of them. It is simple. You can get physically attacked.” She adds in a firm tone: “If I didn't have children and if the extreme right passed, I would go back there to resist. But with kids, I prefer to stay here.”
Sarah, the last to arrive in Quebec last August, expresses ambivalent feelings: “The more time goes by, the more I ask myself questions. I miss my loved ones enormously, but the comfort I have here is incomparable and it is difficult to see myself returning to France to face a wave of racism and Islamophobia.”
Is Quebec following in the footsteps of France?
While these French women often perceive Quebec as a less racist society and more tolerant of minorities, this feeling remains to be put into perspective. Indeed, Quebec society is not exempt from a certain xenophobia, even if it tends to express it less ostensibly. “Systemic racism exists in Quebec. However, despite the numerous reports and events that attest to his presence, the government still refuses to recognize this and to intervene in relation to this injustice,” observes Amnestie Internationale Canada Francophone, at the initiative of a email campaign to challenge political leaders.
In 2020, some time after the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in the United States, the Quebec government committed to implementing a policy to combat racism while refuting the notion of “systemic racism.” The Action Group against Racism was created in the wake and published a report entitled “Racism in Quebec: zero tolerance”, in December of the same year. It lists several “strong measures for a racism-free society”, as well as “convincing actions to respond to Indigenous realities.”
Four years later, racial discrimination when accessing employment or housing, police discrimination and the erasure of Aboriginal identity are still current. “Concretely, among visible minorities residing in Quebec, 32.1% say they have experienced racial discrimination in their job search,” according to the survey on the individual trajectories and dynamics of participation of women and men in Quebec society. (TrajiPAQ, 2020). Discrimination that varies according to the origin and migratory status of people.
The Observatory of Racial Inequalities in Quebec, a body created in 2021, also notes in A report card that: “religious symbols, in particular the wearing of the veil, are characteristic of the experience of racism in employment in Quebec. To this end, among African women who said they had suffered racial discrimination in employment (31%), 85% are North African and wear the veil.”
Discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation is also common. “With equal qualifications, women experience significant discrimination with an average hourly wage that is lower than that of men,” notes the Quebec Observatory of Racial Inequalities in Quebec.
Finally, as of 2021, the Center for Expertise and Training on Religious Fundamentisms, Political Ideologies and Radicalization (CEFIR) notes that Quebec is no exception to the phenomenon of the rise of the extreme right since the beginning of the 2010s. “The Quebec extreme right not only experienced a vertiginous increase in its activities during this period (6350%), but (...) these involve more and more violence. (verbal, physical and cyberviolence)”, indicates CEFIR in a study published in May 2024.
Politically, the extreme right has long remained very marginal. But the context is changing rapidly. “On the Quebec side, the crisis of reasonable accommodations (2007) had a significant impact on public opinion and on nationalist political forces (Parti Québécois and Coalition Avenir Quebec), gradually leading them to support identity-based, moderate and opportunistic nationalism,” underlines the researcher Maxim Fortin, in An article published in At Port - Social and political review. As in France, the demagogic discourse of the extreme right targets immigration, more particularly Muslims, and “focuses on indigenous people in the hope of drawing them into a fight alongside “ethnic Quebecers” against “foreigners”””, according to the researcher.
While Quebec seems to be following in the footsteps of its cousin across the Atlantic, in France nothing has yet been decided. We will in fact have to wait for the second round of the legislative elections, which will end on the evening of Sunday, July 7, to find out if the history of France will switch to the extreme right or if it will have a new break... until the next elections.