May 8, 2007
France braced for a stiff dose of Thatcherism
The election of Nicolas Sarkozy as the next president of France was greeted with a light smattering of riots across the country. Mr Sarkozy knows that could be just the aperitif. There is a real risk of social unrest, as France’s new president tries to deliver on his promise of “rupture” with the past.
Mr Sarkozy knows that three prime ministers of the Chirac era – Alain Juppé, Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Dominique de Villepin – were forced to abandon economic reforms in the face of popular demonstrations. But he is determined that things will be different this time. One member of the Sarkozy inner circle argues that previous rounds of reform failed because President Jacques Chirac lost his nerve. With “Nicolas” in the Élysée palace, things will be different.
The new president will certainly need nerves of steel because the reforms he hopes to push through in his first 100 days in office could almost be designed to antagonise every strike-happy interest group in the country.
The rest of Gideon’s weekly FT column is here (FT.com subscription required). You can comment below.
Gideon
Looking back and looking at the FT’s frontpage photo of yamaulka-clad Nicholas with the caption “Leading Light”, I think you will agree that this piece from last year misunderstood what Sarkozy stood for. You are not to be faulted, as most of us at the very least underestimated how profound an impact he would make. Even when his popularity ratings in France are overall neck-and-neck with his patron, George W Bush.
The latest numbers published in Sunday’s JDD were before the public was let in on his plans to commit French forces not just in defence of Israel, but as agents of Mideast change.
Nonetheless, I commend some of the bold pragmatism that was put before the Knesset and will hope that it is genuine and reinforced by pragmatists in Israel. Together with soundings out of Ryadh, Qatar, Dubai and even Tehran, there are reasons not to despair.
Nicholas Sarkozy is not a champion of Thatcherism. He is an Exceptionalist, and the Neocons for whom he auditioned during Chirac’s bitter twilight found gold in this articulate, clever, arrogant and manipulative PR man.
While taking the train out of Paris yesterday, I found a few hours to read Rob Shapiro’s Futurecast (well reviewed yesterday by John Lloyd). Aside from Rob’s cynical reasoning that even a failing US democracy/economy will be the steadiest thing floating in the sea in 2020, I was more disturbed by some other conclusions. One is that Europeans and their American cousins have spent far too much time over the past 200 years educating ordinary folk. This has proved unproductive and worse. So, many of the participants in this blog can feel duped on our inherited commitment and dogged efforts to sustain the ideas of democracy, free thinking and humanism in our own lifetimes and for the next generations.
We have moved into the Age of Exceptionalism, and now we watch as a shortlist of contending groups compete to be Boss.
Sarko and Bush are certainly standing proof that one only needs to pander electorates (tedious and tiresome as the task is) and then run with the Agenda your patrons have devised.
The public response? Incomprehension and resignation. FT and the US media seem not to want to highlight the significance of M. Sarkozy’s policy shifts. They are ignoring that Israel de facto was made a full part of the EU on the same day he categorically slammed the door on Turkey and other aspirants (not that I’m pro-expansion). They are ignoring the implications of this man’s rhetoric vis-à-vis escalation of tensions with Iran. His European counterparts seem indifferent. European voters, however, as we saw in Ireland, are not. But votes will become as quaint and relevant as milk delivery very soon.
As two self-absorbed and overly health-conscious American college kids were overheard saying yesterday on my train, “Who gives a f*** about politics? It doesn’t affect my life.” They are more fascinated by how much nicer life in Europe is than in the US. With no clue as to why or at what risk such quality is now being put by those who are imposing the Doctrine of Globalisation.
Posted by: wcm | June 24th, 2008 at 12:21 pm | Report this comment