Media storms often occur when something happens on the European far right. This is for good reason. Their challenge to the liberal-democratic system and working of multi-ethnic societies is wide-reaching – including among others xenophobic statements, antisemitic attacks and anti-EU stances.

This week there was another allegedly significant event. Marine Le Pen, from France’s powerful Front National (FN), started opposing her father’s eventual candidature in a regional election after some of his habitual right-leaning reinterpretations of French and European history. In this she is believed to have distanced itself from the party’s neo-fascist past with the hope of running in a more moderate guise in the presidential election.

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This is surely relevant because the FN is probably the best example of the right-wing extremism which, from the 1980s onwards, has developed a strong activism and noteworthy electoral gains. But the main question here is if the FN led by Jean-Marie Le Pen is actually becoming a moderate force, with the right expertise to govern a nation in a global and multi-ethnic era.

If one looks at recent polls, a number of voters (and commentators) seem to believe so. Yet, the reality is unfortunately different. The risk is a legitimisation of a somewhat old-fashioned anti-liberal European far right, and this includes parties such as Ukip in the UK, which use similar political rhetoric.

The FN itself is far from being an innovative party. It was born in 1972, and influenced by the Italian Social Movement, which in turn was grounded in the interwar fascist tradition. French activists followed this fascistic role model to shape their policies.

However, they also became proficient in capitalising on modern concerns such as immigration, globalisation, Americanisation, neoliberalism, unemployment – and, of course, austerity. Jean-Marie Le Pen, for instance, opposed mainstream European integration, the free circulation of people within Europe and US influence on the continent, while supporting economic protectionism for national industries and products. He coined the famous “national preference” for the primacy of local citizens, which has been followed by all other European rightwing parties.

The core of their doctrine is roughly the same as the old extremism of the postwar years

Most of the FN now seems to agree with these sentiments, and in fact some members come from a genuinely far-right background. The core of their doctrine is roughly the same as the old extremism of the postwar years. Even one of the most powerful recent flags for mobilising activists and voters, notably immigration is, in truth, a key feature at least since the 1950s, following European decolonisation. Slogans against “waves” of non-European migrants were common. The rejection of the “other” has been a recurrent theme for the ultra-nationalist right since the establishment of nation states.

The manifesto of Marine Le Pen’s party, like other similar groups in Europe, talks about a “reduction in five years of legal immigration … [and] of asylum seekers”, a review of the free movement of EU citizens, the “renegotiation of the European Convention of Human Rights”, strengthening the rules for granting French nationality, the application of a Jean-Marie-like “national priority” and, intriguingly, a “reaffirmation of our [French] republican model against Anglo-Saxon multiculturalism”.

There is no real moderation of their ideology. The language they use is, at times, more acceptable than it was in the past, yet they propose a return of outdated nationalisms that are not able to compete globally in political and economic terms. They are, once more, ready to go back to the small, local areas and safe kingdoms, with their familiar landscapes. This offers little space for integration policies and any serious discussion. In fact, mono-ethnic communities hardly existed in history, let alone today.

If we then consider the economic situation, the unpopularity of the EU, their own international networks and the recent links with Russia, these allegedly modern, non-extremist, far-right parties are, in some ways, even more worrying than the old neo-fascists led by the likes of Jean-Marie Le Pen.