Vive la République! Vive la France! En fallstudie om kandidaterna inför det franska presidentvalet 2017

During long time, France have had a history of representing right- and left wing parties in their presidential election. In the presidential election of 2017 this changed with a representation of centrist Emmanuel Macron and Extreme Right Marine Le Pen. Since Front National’s often named in the context of nationalist and populist extreme right parties, the aim of this thesis is to examine what it is in their programme that makes them both populist and nationalist. Since both nationalist and extreme right parties tends to combine this with xenophobia, the concept of racism is also looked into. The objects of analysis are Macron and Le Pens electoral programs and victory speeches. These are examined with a theory of creating an analytical framework in which the concepts racism, nationalism and populism are defined. The thesis is based on a method where the concepts first are being operationalized with favourable criterions so they later can be put into a classification scheme. The aim is to explain what it is in their programmes that makes the parties racist, nationalist and populist. By doing this I’ve found that both Marine Le Pen and Macron are responding with new strategies to save France from an experienced economical and security crisis. By doing this they both include populism in their politics, where Le Pens populism differs from Macrons with a palpable populist rhetoric and supplements of nativism and authoritarianism which classifies the right wing populists. Macrons populism is mostly consisting of populist strategy and a critique of the situation were France can find itself today. The difference between the two is that Le Pen is also containing a nationalist and racist agenda while Macron is building his politics on values of justice and equality