A warning about the miscalculation by German elites who believed they could control Adolf Hitler has sparked outcry from the National Rally (RN) party in France.
The RN’s anger came after a journalist suggested that some business leaders are making the same mistake with party leader Jordan Bardella.
Speaking on panel on public broadcaster C5 channel yesterday, French investigative journalist Caroline Michel-Aguirre warned of the “von Papen effect”. That was a reference to late German chancellor Franz von Papen, who in 1932 helped Hitler into power, believing he could keep him under control.
“The federation of employers is taking a risk because part of them is multiplying contacts with Jordan Bardella and saying to themselves: We’re going to take control of his brain,” Michel-Aguirre said.
“He’s young, he doesn’t know anything about it, we’re going to give him a liberal programme.
“This is what Alain Minc [political advisor and author] calls, and I quote, the ‘von Papen effect’. This risk of saying that, in the name of potential stability, we will take this risk because we will control it,” she added.
Following Michel-Aguirre’s statement, Bardella reacted on X, criticising the public service.
“‘The von Papen effect’, getting better and better! The conception of the debate, according to the public service, four speakers, all agreeing to compare me to Hitler, without any nuance or moderation from the presenter, with an approving gaze,” he wrote.
“Through me, it is millions of French people who are insulted, with their money. Long live privatisation!” he added.
Kevin Pfefeer, a member of the executive bureau of the right-wing RN, said he had filed a complaint with TV regulator Arcom.
“I am immediately filing a complaint with Arcom regarding this unacceptable sequence. All low blows, all excesses, all words are not permitted. Public broadcasting is once again wallowing in the utmost indignity,” he announced.
Polls indicate that if the first round of France’s presidential election were held today, the RN under either Marine Le Pen or Jordan Bardella would win about 35 per cent of the vote, thus leading the race.
