French type of LW left wing con

 Conservative Socialism

 French Left-Conservatism[edit | edit source]

In France, Left Conservatism is a rather vague term that designates several personalities and organizations officially of the Left who are nevertheless often critical of modern Left Progressism.

We can cite for example, Georges Kuzmanovic, a Frenchman of Serbian origin who began his political career by joining the Trotskyite organization Lutte Ouvrière. After several humanitarian operations in Mali and Rwanda, he joined the Left Party of Jean Luc Mélenchon in 2009 before joining La France Insoumise, the new party founded by Mélenchon. He then left this party to found his new party called  République Souveraine because of disagreements with the leadership on issues such as his anti-immigration positions and the little importance he gives to struggles such as feminism or LGBTQ+ struggles. His party has a social democratic, protectionist, Eurosceptic and Gaullist agenda and has tried to nominate Kuzmanovic for the 2022 election. This candidacy attempt was supported by Jacques Cheminades, the French representative of the Larouche Movement and the youtuber Tatiana Ventôse, also a former member of La France Insoumise. However, this candidacy did not succeed.

The  French Communist Party has also been accused of Left-wing conservatism in the 2022 presidential election under the leadership of Fabien Roussel, who in addition to the party's traditional support to nuclear energy, has issued other statements in the media that put him at odds with large parts of the french Left, such pro-hunting, pro-meat consumption, pro-small business positions and support to the police. However while there are internally more conservative elements in it, the party and its platform remains vastly progressive.

The  Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste) has been through an informal split since the 2012 election and mandate of François Hollande, initially between the pro-governments and the "frondeurs", the latter accusing the government of betraying its promises in favor of the status-quo and demanding the enactment of actual left-wing policies. This internal split continued through the 2017 election in the party's primaries, with the supporters of the Hollande government constituting themselves as a more conservative faction, and the frondeurs managing to have their candidate, Benoit Hamon, win over former prime minster Manuel Valls. Many supporters of the Hollande mandate refused to acknowledge this, and even before the election supported instead Emmanuel Macron's candidacy, Manuel Valls himself joining him. Following Macron's first election, most of those in the PS who had supported Hollande's presidency had left the party to join Macron's movement and government, many of them claiming that the new Left had changed too much. These having repudiated social-democracy to embrace neo-liberalism, they can hardly be described as conservative socialists. However, the split continued within the PS up until 2022, where former Hollande supporters who didn't leave the party (mostly party officials and executives), as well as some former-frondeurs and more neutral members kept forming this conservative faction which began to more publicly word its concern regarding cultural progressivism in the Left. Anne Hidalgo, the party's candidate during the 2022 presidentials, which was at the time ambiguous on its criticism of Hollande's legacy, notably said that she was against the woke Left, a term that had just started being imported from the US by the french Right. What remains of the PS is currently mostly dominated by the continuers of the frondeurs.

An issue where the french conservative left more often than not clashes with other parts of the french left is its view on  Laicism. While in France the modern Left generally defends an inclusive vision of the "laïcité", often claimed to be closer to its original conception and summed up in the phrase "just the 1905 law, nothing but the 1905 law, all of the 1905 law", those in the Right who are in favor of laicism uphold it in a more culturally-centered way, especially against french muslims whose practices are deemed "incompatible with the laws of the Republic", such as wearing the islamic veil in public spaces. The conservative parts of the french Left thus often take the same approach as the Right on this matter, as when Hollande's prime minister Manuel Valls supported the ban of burkini from public beaches and pools. The think-tank "Printemps Républicain" has been created mainly to uphold this vision of Laicism. Political figures of the french Left like  Jean-Luc Mélenchon began defending a similar position before gradually shifting to its more modern conception.

"Marianne" is a center-left journal which under the direction of essayist Natacha Polony has often been appealing the french conservative Left and criticizing the modern Left.