Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says even with National Front candidate Marine Le Pen’s loss in France on Sunday, she is still concerned about the continued presence of populism in Europe and its impact on politics even when populist candidates don’t win.
Speaking to USA Today’s Capital Download, Rice, who served as America’s top diplomat under former President George W. Bush, said the pushback against globalism will continue until there are better answers.
The interview was published Sunday before Emmanuel Macron won the election. Rice talked up her upcoming book, titled “Democracy: Stories from the Long Road to Freedom” and answered questions about the French election. She was asked if she was concerned about the situation in France, where she said populists have gained a great deal of power.
“I am concerned about what is happening in France,” she said, adding that she also was concerned about the successful “Brexit” vote in the United Kingdom which triggered an exit from the European Union. She said she wasn’t concerned because of the individual events, but rather “what it might say about how citizens are beginning to respond to globalization, beginning to respond to the sense that they’re beginning to lose control of their future of their identity of their economic prospects.”
Rice said though populist candidates candidates like may not win their elections, they, and the rise of nativism, are changing the state of politics just by being in the conversation.
“I really do believe that these populists are changing the character of the politics just by being there, so even mainstream candidates are having to respond to their agenda,” Rice said. “You see fewer people talking about free trade. You see countries talking about industrial policy and protectionism. It’s hard to defend immigrants almost any place in the world today.”
