Can a liberal Catholic now save France?

France is a muddled nation, n’est-ce pas? And at the root of the muddle is, guess what, religion. Maybe the muddle is a godsend. For if the right were more united on religion, Marine Le Pen would surely have won. The Front National is the strongest far-right party in Western Europe, supported by about a third of the French people. But it is also the most muddled. It has a nostalgic idea of the nation as a traditional organic culture. But it seems utterly ignorant of the gaping problem with such a project. Traditional French culture is split between Catholicism and secularism.

Marine Le Pen emphasised secularism, in order to project a clear line against Islam. But this was probably a mistake. For the deepest force in French conservatism is actually the Catholic right, which normally votes for Les Républicains, whose candidate François Fillon failed to make it to the last round.