The eerie parallels between politics now and in 1930s Europe are often remarked - and this is certainly the case in France today.
One aspect of this is the fracture between urban and rural areas. I was particularly struck by the fact that in Paris half of the constituencies were decided in the first round - all going to the left - so reminiscent of, say, the sharp division between 'Red Vienna' and the ultra-conservative Austrian countryside.
We are no doubt facing the danger of fascism again. But one aspect of these parallels we need to remember is that the far right was not actually elected In Italy, Germany, Spain, Austria, etc - it gained large minorities, often with the left gaining a large minority too, or indeed a majority (as in Spain) - but in the resulting political chaos, the right was engineered into power by the old established political centre - the Establishment - which made the disastrous choice of fascism, war, holocaust, rather than serious left reform of capitalism (reform that came eventually anyway, after the destruction, when most 'western' countries adopted much of the Programme du Conseil national de la Résistance, and built welfare states with 80-90% marginal tax rates).