France: A Nation’s Conscience and the Question of Terror
NOVANEWS
By Adeyinka Makinde
Adeyinka Makinde
The French presidential election being contested by Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen has provided analysts with much to ponder over the direction offered by two candidates who are presenting themselves to the electorate as non-establishment outsiders.
Points of demarcation over foreign and domestic policy often posit Macron and Le Pen respectively as representing “internationalism” versus “nationalism” and of “centrism” against “neo-fascism”.
Elections also provide a platform for grappling with national existential anxieties. The French nation is one which is perennially involved in soul-searching; of presenting a rationale for its nationhood and the ‘mission’ it has within the global community of nations and cultures. Such soul-s...