Why so many French Catholics voted for the far-right

Earlier, Catholics tended to vote for centrist or centre-right parties, La Croix Internationale reported.

The French news agency spoke with Jean-Marie Donegani, a leading expert on the relationship between religion and politics, about the political shift of French Catholics. She sees two possible explanations for the change in political preference.

“The first is that Catholics, just like the rest of French society, are seduced by extreme right-wingers who cultivate the moderate face of a right-wing government. The second is linked to the secularisation of society. As this progresses, regular churchgoers claim to be different from the surrounding culture. They express this feeling rigoristic.”

“Impossible to stop a wave of freedom”

According to Donegani, this extreme right-wing tendency is an entirely new phenomenon which cannot be explained from history. Nevertheless, she points out that the French tradition has always left space for the “radical protestor.”

Even if Catholics voted for Le Pen because they believed she would stop progressive developments, such as homosexual marriage, the Rassemblement would not be able to do so, Donegani states to La Croix. “It is impossible to stop a wave of freedom that began with political freedom and continues today with a deeper movement that embraces the free disposition of bodies, the choices of emotional life.”