The far right does best where civil society has fragmented and where the state has visibly pulled out: towns with no doctor nearby, closed post offices and services, unreliable transport, and growing exposure to climate risks.

The usual response is to look for a better national message and a bigger audience. I think that gets it backwards. What works is slower: rebuilding, one territory at a time, a network of local people others trust, rooted in the public-service fights they are already having. Then getting them to speak on the same issue, on the same day.

Drawing on La Boussole, a civic mobilisation programme running in ten French departments, I'll show how local campaigns on public services can add up to something that shapes the national agenda.