U OBRANI NACIJE: POLITIKA EUROSKEPTICIZMA FRANCUSKE DESNICE
IN DEFENSE OF THE NATION: THE POLICY OF EUROSKEPTICISM OF THE FRENCH RIGHT

Author(s): Paul Hainsworth, Caroline O’Brien, Emma O’Brien, Paul Mitchell
Subject(s): Civil Society, Nationalism Studies, EU-Approach / EU-Accession / EU-Development
Published by: Centar za politološka istraživanja
Summary/Abstract: France is one of the founding members of the European Community (EC), and it is difficult to imagine European integration without French presence and leadership at the outset. Also, given that this is a country with strong nationalist sentiments, a long history of nation-state building and assimilationist imperialism, it is not surprising that, alongside pro-integrationist attitudes towards Europe, there must necessarily have been considerable Eurosceptic sentiment. This was evident from the outset, but real disagreements about Europe were particularly visible more recently, in the 1992 referendum on the Maastricht Treaty. The 1992 campaign and results showed that France was divided in two, with forces on the political right (but also on the left) aligning themselves with both Eurocamps at the same time. This article focuses on the Euroscepticism of the right, as expressed by the two party political currents that advocated a "no" vote in the 1992 referendum: in particular, a form of Gaullist nationalism celebrated by political heavyweights such as Philippe Séguin and Charles Pasque; national populism in the form of Jean-Marie Le Pen's Front National (FN); and - somewhere between these two forces - Villersism, an independent political force that had some influence in 1990 but whose political future is now in doubt.

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