Once, it would have been the left who aspired to represent the French working class. But today, as Christophe Guilluy argues, the left speaks mostly for a metropolitan elite and views its former working-class base as racist, backward ‘deplorables’. Polls show that the New Popular Front’s voters are mostly young, well-educated and urban. Tellingly, it was also the most popular bloc among those who are ‘privileged’ or ‘wealthy’. The working classes can see that it does not speak for them.

Ultimately, French voters are flocking to RN not because they have suddenly become racist, or fascist or suspicious of liberal democracy, as the establishment likes to claim. They are just desperate for an alternative, and for their concerns about migration, extremism and the state of French society to be taken seriously. They have been abandoned by mainstream parties that no longer even pretend to care about any of this.

All across Europe, populist parties are on the rise because – whatever their respective flaws or baggage – they are willing to challenge an elite consensus that has so manifestly failed. As Macron is now learning to his cost, the populist revolt is just getting started.