To paraphrase philosopher Antonio Gramsci, we are witnessing not an event, but an epoch. The eventual rise to power of the National Rally would be one of its chapters.

This epoch began with the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and the forces at play today are the mature offspring of that “war on terror”. While these movements refuse to hide their supremacist nature and authoritarian intent behind a veneer of political decorum, they do not fundamentally differ at their core from the governments that preceded them; they merely call for draconian Islamophobic measures to be adopted faster, with the backing of entire societies.

The proposed hijab referendum in France should not be understood only as the move of an obsessively Islamophobic party, nostalgic for its colonial past. More broadly, it offers a perfect opportunity for an obsessively Islamophobic nation, nostalgic for its colonial past, to adopt legislation that could drive the last nail into the coffin of Muslims’ freedom of religion.

The French presidential race has begun. For the first time since 2017, Emmanuel Macron won’t be a part of it.

And for the first time in her career, Marine Le Pen is the clear frontrunner, even after her conviction in a corruption scandal almost prevented her from running for public office.

Prior to the final ruling, her second-in-command, Jordan Bardella, had tried to force his way in as the strongest National Rally presidential candidate, believing that Le Pen’s judicial vulnerability might translate an into electoral one - a costly ambition for which he is now paying, after Le Pen fired his closest associates inside the party.

In short, the 2027 race is widely believed to be Le Pen’s to lose, after she launched her campaign around the themes of immigration and Islam.

She plans to hold two referendums: one asking whether the French population supports her plan to restrict immigration, and another on banning the hijab in public spaces. Both would seek to cement the legitimacy of structural racism and Islamophobia through majoritarian approval.