It was France that gave the world the concepts of the left and right in politics. Now it is France that is leading the way in the destruction of this divide and its replacement by a new politics, one in which the two dominant camps are nationalists and internationalists.

The left-right cleavage has its origins in the French revolution of 1789 — when supporters of the royal veto stood on the right of the National Assembly and opponents stood to the left. Over the following two centuries, left and right became the central philosophical divide in western politics.

But in the first round of the French presidential election on April 10, the traditional centre-right and centre-left parties collapsed. Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist Party candidate, got just 1.8 per cent and Valérie Pécresse, the candidate for the centre-right republicans 4.8 per cent. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a far-left candidate, got 22 per cent of the vote, but was still eliminated.