French Scientists Get Political Threat of Far-Right President Galvanizes Researchers in France to Defend Liberal Democracy

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Supporters of Front National leader Marine Le Pen hand out campaign leaflets in the northern town of Hénin-Beaumont.

FRANCE ELECTION French scientists get political Threat of far-right president galvanizes researchers in France to defend liberal democracy.

BY DECLAN BUTLER prominently in the campaigns. But this time, Le Pen has consistently led polls of science has barely been mentioned — elbowed first-round voting intentions, along with t is the strangest French presidential out by political scandals and the rise of Emmanuel Macron, who heads En Marche!, election that mathematician Cédric Villani Marine Le Pen’s far-right Front National party. a centrist movement that he created last year: can remember. “It has been like no other,” Le Pen has dominated much of the discus- each has around 22–23% of poll support. Ihe says: “hectic, hysterical, and full of twists sion about the election — to the dismay of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a far-left candidate of and turns”. With a few days left before Sunday’s those who oppose her nativist and nationalistic the party La France Insoumise, has surged in first round of voting, any of four candidates policies. Critics say that Le Pen, and the recent weeks to around 19–20% — catching up could still reach next month’s second round, a co-opting by mainstream parties of many of with François Fillon, the official candidate of head-to-head run-off between the leading pair. her themes, poses a serious threat to the plural- the main centre-right party, Les Républicains. But with many voters undecided, and turnout ism and values of France’s liberal democracy. Trailing below 10% is Benoît Hamon, the hard to predict, much could still change. As a consequence, many researchers in France official candidate of the main centre-left For scientists in France, the presidential have told Nature that they are less concerned, Parti Socialiste. contest is often a chance to debate research and in this election, about candidates’ stances on Since Le Pen took the helm of the Front science-related issues. When Nicolas Sarkozy scientific issues than they are about broader National six years ago, she has professional- was elected a decade ago, for example, univer- political issues, and that their focus is stopping ized and invigorated the party machinery, sity reforms and environmental policy featured Le Pen and the spread of her ideas. and tried to present a softer image, says

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As well as holding numerous interviews, Nature e-mailed more than 3,500 scientists in France, requesting them to take part in an anonymous online survey. The results, from 173 researchers who had replied by 17 April, are far from a representative poll of scientists’ voting intentions, but reflect a trend among some French researchers to veer to the left of the political spectrum. They show Macron as the clear frontrunner, well ahead of Mélenchon and Hamon, and even further ahead of Fillon, with almost no support for Le Pen. Asked expressly to comment on research policy priorities for France’s next president, survey respondents said they would like to From left: presidential contenders Emmanuel Macron, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and François Fillon. see more funding for basic and long-term research; more science on topics directly Daniel Stockemer, a political scientist at the has promised to renegotiate France’s terms of relevant to citizens, such as agriculture University of Ottawa. But the party founded membership with the EU, and to hold a ref- and the environment; and a simplification by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in the early erendum on the country’s place in the bloc of complex grant-application procedures.

1970s remains extremist and illiberal, says and on leaving the euro currency. Last month, In fact, continuity is the most likely outcome GUYOT/AFP/GETTY PASCAL MORIN/IP3/GETTY; CHRISTOPHE JULIEN DE ROSA/IP3/GETTY; Stockemer: “The core programme is the same; in response, Villani joined the campaign of for France’s research policies after the elec- all that has changed is its communication strat- Macron — the most pro-European candidate. tions, says Rémi Barré, a science-policy expert egy.” For all the political jitters, a Le Pen victory Macron is also widely considered best placed and an emeritus researcher at the National is “impossible”, Stockemer thinks. Le Pen’s core to roundly defeat Le Pen in a head-to-head. Conservatory of Arts and Crafts in Paris. electorate still consists largely of people with Le Pen has a vision of a society closed in Reforms instigated under the presidencies extremist right-wing views, he says, which upon itself, while researchers tend to have an of Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, and puts a ceiling on the number of voters she international outlook, says Édouard Brézin, refined under François Hollande — such as can attract in a head-to-head run-off. “The an emeritus theoretical physicist at the École efforts to give universities more independ- Front National is not the catch-all party that is Normale Supérieure in Paris and former ence from the state — are likely to carry on. needed to win a presidential election,” he says. president of the French National Centre for Economic constraints mean that the next Villani, who directs the Henri Poincaré Scientific Research (CNRS). “Any French president and government will probably have Institute in Paris, also highlights the threat retreat from Europe would be far more little opportunity to raise research budgets that Le Pen poses to the European Union. She significant than Brexit,” adds Brézin. significantly, he says. ■

NANOTECHNOLOGY Drivers gear up for world’s first nanocar race Molecular wagons will navigate tiny course along golden track.

BY DAVIDE CASTELVECCHI Christian Joachim, a chemist who works at for transporting cargo or information, par- the Centre for Materials Elaboration and ticipants say. “It’s a gigantic experiment, per- ix teams from three continents are Structural Studies in Toulouse, where the event formed by many people at the same time,” preparing for a unique race on a polished will take place. He and Gwénaël Rapenne, a Joachim says. (Nature Nanotechnology, which gold track in the south of France this chemist at the University of Toulouse-Paul is independent of Nature’s news team, is a Smonth. But this is no luxurious supercar event: Sabatier, developed the contest after Joachim sponsor of the race.) competitors will be racing single molecules. In realized — following an interview with a jour- 36 hours, they aim to move them a distance of nalist — that nanocars attracted much more ELECTRON FUEL 100 nanometres — about one-thousandth the public attention than did his research on The term nanocar is actually a misnomer, width of a human hair — on a laboratory track fundamental aspects of nanotechnology. because the molecules involved in this race held in a vacuum and chilled to a few degrees The race may also provide scientific insights have no motors. (Future races may incor- above absolute zero. for the contestants, who want to learn more porate them, Joachim says.) And it is not The contest is being billed as the world’s about how their individual molecules interact clear whether the molecules will even roll first nanocar race, and the aim is to get with surfaces. That may help in the design of along like wagons: a few designs might, but people excited about nanotechnology and catalysts and, in the longer term, further the many lack axles and wheels. Drivers will molecular machines, says co-organizer aim of creating molecular-scale technologies use electrons from the tip of a scanning

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