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Nacer Djabi is a sociologist, who lives in Algiers. Author of numerous works on social movements and trade unionism in Algeria, he published in 2019 the book Amazigh Movements in North Africa (Chihab Editions).
He is one of the inspirations of the Call of October 22, 2020, also called Nidaa 22, bringing together activists from Hirak, the anti-system movement wishing to organize “a real democratic transition” in Algeria.
How do you see this electoral campaign in France? What does it reflect in your eyes about the evolution of French society?
Nacer Djabi France is currently experiencing a situation that is not specific to it. It can also be seen throughout Western Europe and even beyond. Traditional left parties are weak, social movements are weak. Opposite, the right and the extreme right are progressing. We feel it in the practices, in the speeches. We also see it in political parties and among the elites. It is a confinement. White, rich and Christian Europe is barricading itself. She is afraid of Africans, Arabs, Muslims, afraid of the Other.
I would never have thought that someone like Zemmour could express himself like this, almost daily, in the mainstream French media. It’s new. Le Pen senior had never benefited from this type of privilege. Chirac had even challenged him as a partner on a show. Zemmour is saying things today that are very shocking to me, an Algerian, who lived in France in the 1980s, studied and knew a little about French intellectual and cultural life.
To what do you attribute this trivialization of far-right discourse?
This phenomenon does not only affect France and the French. We also have in Algeria this kind of populist, far-right, identity discourse. It is not very apparent on the television channels, but it exists in the written press and among the political elites. This tendency towards identity confinement is international. But it questions about France, which was a civilization of openness.
What could be the consequences for Algeria of Marine Le Pen coming to power in France?
This would disrupt Algerian-French relations. I am especially afraid for the immigrants, for the Algerians who have been living in France for generations. I don’t believe what Marine Le Pen said during her campaign, when she tried to pass herself off as a nice, sweet woman. She wants us to believe that she made a cut with her father. But his father was a torturer in Algeria. He says it and he’s proud of it. She bathed in this environment. I don’t think it can pass, but it’s a risk. The extreme right is there, in France, for quite a while.
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