Dédiabolisation
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{{Expand French|topic=gov|Dédiabolisation du Front national|date=January 2025}}
{{Short description|Term in French politics}}
File:Marine_Le_Pen_(2017-03-24)_01_cropped.jpg, a National Rally leader]]
Dédiabolisation ({{Translation|de-demonization}}) is a term used in French politics to describe the normalization of the far-right National Rally (RN), formerly known as National Front (FN), since the late 1980s.{{cite journal | url=https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/nfs.2013.0049 | doi=10.3366/nfs.2013.0049 | title=Towards a Post-radical Front National? Patterns of Ideological Change and dédiabolisation on the French Radical Right | date=2013 | last1=Almeida | first1=Dimitri | journal=Nottingham French Studies | volume=52 | issue=2 | pages=167–176 }}{{cite journal | url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01402382.2019.1596693 | doi=10.1080/01402382.2019.1596693 | title=How to stay populist? The Front National and the changing French party system | date=2019 | last1=Surel | first1=Yves | journal=West European Politics | volume=42 | issue=6 | pages=1230–1257 }}
History
The term was coined by journalist Olivier Biffaud in a 1989 article in Le Monde, where he wrote that "the National Front has been 'demonized' [diabolisé] for several years. It is now undertaking its 'dédiabolisation.' This, in essence, is the message that the leaders of the far-right movement have been trying to get across to their cadres since the start of the summer university they are holding in La Baule."{{cite web|date=27 November 2023|title='Dédiabolisation' in 'Le Monde,' a winning strategy for the Rassemblement National|url=https://www.lemonde.fr/en/m-le-mag/article/2023/11/27/dediabolisation-in-le-monde-a-winning-strategy-for-the-rassemblement-national_6291381_117.html|author-last=Bouchez|author-first=Yann|access-date=28 June 2024|work=Le Monde}}
Upon assuming the FN leadership in 2011, Marine Le Pen made dédiabolisation a key plank of her leadership, particularly by expelling openly pro-Vichy members from the party (including her father) and by changing the party's name in 2018.{{cite web|date=21 June 2024|title=What France can expect from a far-right National Rally government|url=https://www.politico.eu/article/marine-le-pen-national-rally-france-elections-2024-europe-parliament-neo-nazi-politics/|author-last=Zaretsky|author-first=Robert|access-date=28 June 2024|work=Politico Europe}} The term was first entered into the Larousse dictionary in 2015.{{cite web|date=8 June 2022|title=Histoire d'une notion : la « dédiabolisation », ritournelle de l'extrême droite|url=https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2022/06/08/histoire-d-une-notion-la-dediabolisation-ritournelle-de-l-extreme-droite_6129387_3232.html|author-last=Dupont|author-first=Marion|access-date=28 June 2024|work=Le Monde}}
Dédiabolisation has continued into the 2020s, as the RN began to compete for the largest party in French politics. This latest phase has included the election of 28-year-old Jordan Bardella as party president in 2022 and with Le Pen distancing herself from Éric Zemmour in the 2022 presidential election.{{cite web|date=4 April 2023|title=Le RN est-il devenu un parti comme les autres ?|url=https://theconversation.com/le-rn-est-il-devenu-un-parti-comme-les-autres-201690|author-last=Martin|author-first=Virginie|access-date=28 June 2024|work=The Conversation}}
Reception
Historian Andrew Hussey has said that dédiabolisation has "largely been a success" for the RN, saying that "a new generation has emerged... which doesn’t care about the RN’s murky past – which is well beyond their lifetime anyway – and who will be very soon be shaping the future of France."{{cite web|date=20 June 2024|title=How the far right seduced France's Gen Z|url=https://www.newstatesman.com/international-content/2024/06/how-the-far-right-seduced-frances-gen-z|author-last=Hussey|author-first=Andrew|access-date=28 June 2024|work=The New Statesman}}
Robert Zaretsky of the University of Houston has called the term "misleading," saying that it was "a public relations effort to change the public’s view of the party" instead of a change in the party's values. Itay Lotem of the University of Westminster has described the strategy as keeping the traditional FN "strategy of channelling nationalistic, anti-Muslim sentiment" but with a "polished, media savvy focus on eradicating any overt racism."{{cite web|date=22 March 2017|title=In a bid to detoxify the far right, Marine Le Pen wants to appeal to French Jews|url=https://theconversation.com/in-a-bid-to-detoxify-the-far-right-marine-le-pen-wants-to-appeal-to-french-jews-73993|author-last=Lotem|author-first=Itay|access-date=28 June 2024|work=The Conversation}}
Safia Dahani of the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne has stated that established political institutions and media have played key roles in dédiabolisation, pointing towards centre-right politicians who have defected to the RN, the election of RN MPs as vice-presidents of the National Assembly, and the frequency with which RN figures have been invited to participate in media programmes, while the media has at the same time softened its descriptions of the RN as far-right.{{cite web|date=14 June 2024|title=" La légitimation de l'extrême droite est autant le fait d'autres partis que de l'espace médiatique "|url=https://theconversation.com/la-legitimation-de-lextreme-droite-est-autant-le-fait-dautres-partis-que-de-lespace-mediatique-232275|author-last=Dahani|author-first=Safia|access-date=28 June 2024|work=The Conversation}}