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France's Election: Another Political Thatcher Is Born
PARIS - Nicolas Sarkozy's triumph in the French presidential elections could open the way for deep political and social changes, not unlike those that began with the era of Margaret Thatcher in Britain in the 1980s.At the same time, Sarkozy's triumph, or rather, the defeat of the Left in the shape of Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal, can also bring an overhaul of political structures, according to some political analysts.
Sarkozy obtained 53 percent of the vote in the second round of the presidential elections, thanks to the decisive support of centrists and far right-wing voters, and even some leftist supporters, according to political surveys.
Sarkozy, who will take office May 16, declared immediately that during his mandate "values such as hard work, morality, authority, respect and merit will be rehabilitated."
Such wording, which he has used repeatedly during his campaign, has been widely interpreted as announcement of further dismantling of the welfare state, preference for neo-liberal politics in favor of enterprises, and state authoritarianism.
"I want to restore French national identity," Sarkozy said. "I want the French to be proud again of their nation."
Sarkozy had promised during his campaign to create a ministry for national identity and immigration, suggesting that both are linked. He has also defended a selective immigration policy under which immigrants would be chosen on the basis of their education, and their professional, cultural and even sports capabilities.
In foreign relations, Sarkozy said "the United States can trust French friendship." He later described the U.S.-led war against Iraq "a historical mistake" but said that "friendship means that friends may have different opinions."
Sarkozy's predecessor Jacques Chirac used the veto in 2003 to block a UN National Security Council resolution that sought to give legitimacy to the invasion of Iraq.
Sarkozy also called upon the European Union to "listen to the wrath of the people, who perceive the EU not as a protection, but as a Trojan horse" for all threats represented by globalisation. He announced that he would find a method of passing the failed European Constitution without a referendum. In 2005, French citizens rejected the European constitution in a referendum, effectively killing it.
Sarkozy opposed integration of Turkey into the EU. On the other hand, he supported the inclusion of new Eastern European countries such as Ukraine, and even the Caucasus republic of Georgia into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Sarkozy, whose mother was of Jewish origin, said that in the Middle East "Israeli security" would be central to his presidency.
Sarkozy is the first French president unaffected by the political turmoil of the 20th century. He was born in January 1955, and was still a child when French colonialism came to an end.
By the same token, he does not have the political, diplomatic and friendship links with the Arab world that characterized most of his predecessors.
On the domestic front, Sarkozy announced that he would propose elimination of inheritance taxes, and reduction of taxes for enterprises.
But these policies will depend on the outcome of the legislative elections due Jun. 10 and 17. The French president has enormous powers in foreign policy, but implementation of domestic policies is a task of the government formed after parliamentary elections.
Sarkozy's advisers have said he would create a provisional government May 16, in which he would include political personalities "from the center and the left" to run the country for a month.
On three occasions in the past, French voters have chosen a government ideologically opposed to the president, forcing what has been dubbed cohabitation. But it is unlikely that the next government will be a leftist one.
The Socialist party (PS) seems to have stretched itself to the full in the presidential campaign.
Ségolène Royal, the Socialist candidate, obtained 47 percent of the vote, but the result suggests that there is little more by way of a leftist constituency. In the first round of elections Apr. 22, Royal obtained 25 percent of the vote, and other leftist parties including the Greens and the Communists together won less than 10 percent.
"The Socialist Party really exhausted its potential of votes in the first electoral round," Gérard Grunberg, a political scientist at the National Center for Scientific Research told IPS. "To the left of the PS, there is only a very meager percentage of votes."
According to Grunberg, for the Socialist Party "the challenge is in winning votes from the center of the political spectrum" where a reservoir of moderate voters, afraid of Sarkozy's right-wing radicalism, could be searching for a new political home.
This appears to be the hope also of some Socialist leaders. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former minister for finance and economy said the PS has to move towards the center of the political spectrum, towards social democracy.
"I am ready to lead the social democratic renovation of the party," Strauss-Kahn said after the electoral result was announced May 6.
"The French Left has never been so weak as today," Strauss-Kahn said. "The main reason is that the French Left has failed to go through a revision of its ideas."
Some even believe that the French Socialists should call for an extraordinary congress to discuss a new liberal program, similar to that of the German Social Democratic Party in Bad Godesberg in 1959, during which the party abandoned Marxism.
But the PS is a bourgeois organization, with no relation to Marxism whatsoever. It has failed to find an answer to the challenges of a society marked by racist resentment against immigrants, divisions among regions, and deep skepticism directed at Paris politicians and intellectuals.
Copyright © 2007 IPS-Inter Press Service
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24 Comments so far
Show AllI like NMBill's idea. It ensures privacy, yet allows voters to verify accuracy in a distributed way.
As for the French election, I had hoped that the moderates would have learned from the American experience in electing a radical right executive branch.
The world over, when you vote you receive a random number that can be looked up to see if your vote was counted correctly.
500 voters voted at a polling place = 500 random numbers displayed for that place.
Sarkozy has won the French presidential elections the same way Bush junior won his second term elections: by lying to the people. Most believed his lies.
Now, Sarkozy who represents most of his Neuilly constituency, the richest place in France, will be generous with his friends. Even Johnny Holiday, a French Belgium pop singer who moved to Switzerland to avoid paying taxes, has promised to come back to France since his friend Sarkozy will make sure that rich people pay much less taxes than before.
The middle class and the lower classes who voted for Sarkozy will wake up with a bad headache once they realize that they have been tricked.
« Sarkozy's predecessor Jacques Chirac used the veto in 2003 to block a UN National Security Council resolution that sought to give legitimacy to the invasion of Iraq. »
This is Untrue. Chirac never used the veto but Only menaced to use it.
The citizens of France should watch this guy pretty closely as we learned in the Reagan Era here that poison can be administered to the Republic in sugar-coated form and with a smiling face. For all its faults, European style social democracy (the Right in the U.S. is always trying to conflate that with Marxist ideology, and with a great deal of success)has its priorities in the correct order, e.g., health care, education, decent working conditions. That is to say, not looking for enemies or creating more enemies to justify a bloated military/industrial complex. Wait until Zarkozy starts turning the screws on the common people to make the rich richer. If that happens the people won't happily sit back and take it on the chin like we do here in the "United States of Amnesia." They'll exercise their rights to demonstrate and take action in opposition if the Government goes to far and then take it back to the polls.
The favorite neo-conservative philosopher is Leo Strauss and all neo-conservative policies seem to work on the basic principle of deception. Nothing else need be said other than what jconsult just said.
As long as France keeps their democracy (i.e. that Sarkozy is not able to import much of American fascism), then the majority of French people will realize their mistake and correct the error when they next have the opportunity.
I've seen no articles that have discussed the possiblility of electoral fraud in France. I came across this odd tidbit:
"the first exit polls were revealed in Belgian media and came from the intelligence services of the French Interior Ministry. The polls put Mr Sarkozy's lead at around eight points - in line with opinion polls in the run-up to the vote." Why would the interior ministry be in charge of exit polls? Is there no conflict of interest? And who was in charge of the polls? Corporations? Are there no conflicts of interest?
It does seem hard to believe someone who earned a reputation for being mean-spirited, and who was bested in the recent demonstrations/strikes against an attempt to roll back employee protection against undue firing, won a 'mandate' from 'the people.'
Yet, I assume, unless I read a study to the contrary, that a majority of the French population (who voted) appear to be in favor of ending what remains of their welfare state and join the winning team of Bush and Cheney on the world stage. Perhaps Sarkozy can offer up some troops for fodder to show his good will?
Concerning fraud: France has not adopted, on a large scale, the voting machines where fraud is quite possible. Moreover, the counting of votes is shared between people belonging to both sides of the electorate. Chances of fraud are yet very rare. Maybe fraud may happen, in the next future, under Sarkozy presidency.
If Sarkozy won a presidential mandate, it is because he used all the means money can afford. His best friends are the big media companies (TF1 and Le Figaro for instance), the government and all its agencies, not to mention all the big French corporations which feared a new socialist president. On top of it, Sarkozy promised everything but the moon and didn't hesitate to preach on the right side of French extremism pointing a finger against immigration and foreigners, mainly from Africa and using a well know confusion in France between Insecurity and Immigrants. One must remember that France has the biggest rightist party in Europe, its president Lepen had gathered 18% of the votes during last election in 2002.
"Sarkozy, who will take office May 16, declared immediately that during his mandate "values such as hard work, morality, authority, respect and merit will be rehabilitated.""
What a disgusting, ignorant simpleton! I'm glad I'm not French today.
Hmm so now the French know what it's like when the radical power hungry right wingers somehow get more than 50% of their country to vote for them.
ghostbuster... Exactly... The very basic tenent of the neocons is that deception is justified because we, the brainless sheeple, are unable to grasp the higher truth that only their enhanced mentalities can comprehend.
That is that turmoil and change is GOOD because only through that route (forget that all the many truly magnificent achievements of the human race occur through peaceful cooperation) can human society evolve to the next level.
That countless suffer and die and the planet is despoiled and degraded, appears not to ruffle their serene and deluded exteriors, so sure are they that they alone know "THE TRUTH".. Morons.
They truly are dangerous and crazed.
Guess most people here know that already..
France, now as America's colonial outpost, may just as well pull down her French flag and replace it with that of America, for it appears they have just forfeited their sovereignty. Pope Bush will now have a friendly French poodle as a lap dog.
Those of us in mourning, will fly our ensigns upside down and at half-mast.
Maat, Best Wishes and Hope
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk1vEuhBuEU
Is the left in France really weak??? I mean, I look at the union struggle for workers rights last year, when millions marched in the street against Chirac's draconian anti-worker laws, doesnt seem too decimated to me. At least the union membership in the private sector is not less than 10% like in the US. And I have to agree with the previous commentator. The ordinary workers of France are not going to take Sarkozy's reforms lying down. They've shown that they are way more radical than their European counterparts. C'mon, the only ones to reject the EU. The spontaneous rebellions that occur almost everytime some horrible law is in attempt of being implemented, the union struggles, student struggles of the late 60's. France seems more likely to be the place for a revolution than i'd say any other advanced capitalist country on the planet right now.
"Hmm so now the French know what it's like when the radical power hungry right wingers somehow get more than 50% of their country to vote for them."
Ah...how quickly people forget: the Republicans did NOT get more than 50% of the vote in 2000 or 2004 or 2006. They stole the White House, some of the Congressional elections, and seats in some of the state legislatures. Texas is one example, thanks to Tom Delay's corrupt politics.
Read Greg Palast, David Sirota, and others on the evidence that Rs did NOT win; they stole nearly everything that they got.
And, please, Everyone -- let us NOT ever forget this, and let us STOP the theft of our votes!!!
Clean campaigns (publicly funded elections), only paper ballots with sufficient audits of all counting machines, and open-source software on all counting machines. That's the ticket!
Ok they stole it. But they still got 49% or 48% which is not nearly that different from 51% !! Please lets NOT forget this.
Also PLEASE LETS NOT FORGET that the friggin democ-rats are not very different on just about every count as their kissing cousins the republicans. We need a radical departure from the two-party system.
On the brighter side we just got ourselves a new bitch in the harem ! Vive la France ( or whatever ).
Now that the zionists have successfully placed their son in the highest office in what is probably the last independent voice in western Europe, an invasion of Iran is almost guaranteed. Watch out Syria, you're next.
Elections in bourgeois democracies are all hedged bets at best by the capitalist.
Jose Marti understood this very well. He called for Cubans to have one party in order to stave off the domination by the US and it's robber baron government (not the Spanish who's empire he correctly saw as dying).
See "Market Elections" by Vince Copeland and "Democracy in Cuba" by Arnold August
The Sandinista Revolution was betrayed by bourgeois multi-party elections early in that popular movement.
Ortega was no Castro...and Nicaragua is as poor as ever...with "free and fair elections".
Real democracy happens in the streets...not at the polls.
Yannick Noah, Joakim Noah's father for those of you who are more familiar with the NCAA than with Tennis, is about to leave France. He said he would leave the country if Sarkozy gets elected. Sarkozy is a true neo-con and people in France have no idea what this guy is up to. I wouldn't be surprised France gets hit by a 911 style attack for whom Iran will be blamed and would give a perfect excuse for France to join the US in an attack.
Since the election France's left wing youth is back in the streets for more demonstrations and car burning. Sarkozy is a dangerous man and a threat to democracy. Sheeple in France are no different that the one's in the US and got brainwashed by fear based speeches. Chirac once said of Sarkozy that "giving him the power is like organising a barbeuque in a southern France forest in summer, if people really new who he was he wouldn't get 5% of the votes"...
i wonder. what if people really did know who he was and voted for sarkozy bec they knew. i know very little about this but i think that it hinges on his being very antiimmigrant, in france that is anti arab-immigrant. his neolib stuff was not as important (even if they did not want a neolib) as his anti-immigrant stuff to them.
the french wanted to remain french.
now they will have to learn to love war against arabs. i think they have jumped from the frying pan into the fire. although i think that pushing too much immigration down people's throats is not really fair either.
i see a similar thing happening here. even though it is harder to pin down what it is to be "american" there still is the feeling that the large numbers of illegal immigrants are undoing our ("our") americanness. i am afraid that people will vote for another neocon republican here too if he is more anti-immigrant than the democrat.
Sorkozy is a terrible fellow, I just hope he does not create too many problems for his country and the world.
"large numbers of illegal immigrants are undoing our ("our") americanness"
This 'feeling' unfortunately has less to do with fact and more to do with emotion. Immigrants , legal or undocumented, bring about a net gain to the US economy, which by the way happens to be the largest in the world. To scapegoat immigrants when convenient is hypocritical as we happen to bear the fruits of their labor. On the other hand if immigration is the biggest issue then we must send ALL immigrants back to where they came from starting with the Anglo-Saxon majority. Im sure our pet poodle blair would love to have us back !!
What a silly and misinformad article! To call Sarcozy a "right-winger" is like calling Tony Blair a "right- winger". Sarko is actually closer to Blair than to Thatcher.
Also - many people think that to have the French to change is extremely difficult. They love their comfortable life style, and are not going to suddenly swing to the right. All French traditions are against it.
Regarding the immigration issue, it should be pointed out that sarkozy is for introduction of affirmative action in France. Most of muslim immigrants will benefit from it. Mr. Godoy is trying to push the panic button, plus his comments on Jewish heritage supposedly dictating Sarkozy's policy on Middele east, are stinking of antisemitism. Unfortunately, some of the readers above took the bait. Shame.
Sarkozy wants to .........restore French national identity? How?
Over the past 40 years the French have done an admirable job of developing their very unique identity.
Sarkozy seems to believe that the French now all "want to me like Mike".
I do not think so.