Wednesday, Jun 06, 2007
Opinion
France's new President does his own thing http://www.hindu.com/2007/06/06/stories/2007060603201000.htm
Vaiju Naravane
Nicholas Sarkozy has decided to jettison all complexes about money and power, and about protocol and the "done thing." And he is likely to become even more powerful because of the near total collapse of the French Left.
FRANCE'S NEW President Nicolas Sarkozy is likely to celebrate his first month in office with a resounding victory in the legislative elections to be held on June 17. Opinion polls predict his conservative party, the UMP, over which he holds absolute sway, could win as many as 450 seats in the 577-seat parliament, further strengthening the President's hands.
During the past month Mr. Sarkozy has been his usual hyperactive self, dashing across Europe to meet the European Union's main players, inviting unions and other interest groups for talks at the Elysee Palace and campaigning hard for the legislatives in what has been described as a distressing departure from the norm. In France, where the President is expected to place himself above party politics to lead the entire nation and not just the faction that voted him in, Mr. Sarkozy's speeches urging the electorate to vote for the UMP have been criticised as "inappropriate" and "partisan."
But so determinedly unfazed and unembarrassed is the new President that criticism, whether from the Right or the Left, is like water off a duck's back.
He first thumbed his nose at public opinion just minutes after winning when he elected to dine at Fouquets, a select Parisian restaurant, surrounded by a chosen few (some of the wealthiest men in France, most owners of huge media and industrial conglomerates) while his plebeian supporters cooled their heels at the Place de la Concorde waiting for him to show up for his victory gala. He then accepted the generous gift of a swanky holiday using the private jet and luxury yacht placed at his disposal by his industrialist friend Vincent Bollore.
"I do not wish to hide; I do not intend to lie and I certainly have no intention of apologising," he said, when it was pointed out that the President-elect of the nation was effectively in the debt of a powerful industrialist. "One cannot claim to be Gaullist and behave like Berlusconi. Between Fouquets, private jet and floating palace he forgot he had just been elected President. For three days he made us feel ashamed," wrote philosopher Alain Finkielkraut.
Mr. Sarkozy has decided to jettison all complexes about money and power but also about protocol and the "done thing." He freely admits that power is an aphrodisiac and does not bother to deny his love for money or the high life. All his life he has assiduously courted the rich and powerful. With breathtaking frankness he told a reporter "If I fail to win, I'll enter private practice. I want to make money." The day after he took office, the French were stunned to see their new President bounding up the steps of the Elysee Palace wearing shorts, t-shirt, and a pair of Nike trainers.
He had promised a clean break with the past, a new era in the conduct of French affairs, and Mr. Sarkozy appears to be delivering, at least on style if not yet on substance. He has introduced a somewhat Americanised, gung-ho spirit in the way his office is run, reminiscent of past U.S. Presidents upon whom he has modelled himself - a widely circulated photograph shows him in his office with glamorous wife Cecilia and son Louis in a poor imitation of JFK's famous Oval Office picture. In doing so he has turned the rather staid, protocol-bound institution that is the French presidency upside down. The accent under France's first post-war President (he was born in January 1953) has been on action and movement. He wants immediate and quick change or at least the appearance of change. And so far, apart from the initial quacks, he has had a flawless run.
On the afternoon of his investiture he dashed off to Germany to meet Angela Merkel, German Chancellor and current EU President. The day after, he was eating lunch with the employees of the embattled aviation giant Airbus before returning to Paris to announce his government. His biggest coup so far has been to appoint a government that is noticeably younger than its predecessor, tighter knit (there are only 15 full Ministers and four junior Ministers) and includes several centrists and leftists, notably Bernard Kouchner, the charismatic founder of the humanitarian NGO Doctors Without Borders as France's new Foreign Minister. Mr. Sarkozy's main thrust appears to be on foreign policy - placing France at the centre of world affairs again. With this in mind he has proposed a humanitarian corridor for Darfour, a mediation role in Lebanon, and a simplified EU treaty aimed at pulling Europe out of its current morass.
But all has not been smooth sailing. Mr. Sarkozy's over-reaching ambition has led critics to compare him to a "Little Napoleon" (like the emperor, Mr. Sarkozy is pint-sized) who will meet his waterloo if he continues to concentrate power in his own hands. The Foreign Ministry, for instance, has been defanged, with the power to deliver visas taken away and handed over to Mr. Sarkozy's close confidant, Brice Hortefeux, the new super-minister for Immigration, Integration, National Identity, and Co-development. With the same stroke he has also hobbled the Interior Ministry, which formerly handled immigration affairs and eroded the Ministries of labour and justice. He has placed 41-year-old Rachida Dati, a woman with relatively little experience as a magistrate, to the post of Minister of Justice. Her recently unveiled plans include harsher sentences for minors who are repeat offenders and other highly repressive measures that bear the clear stamp of Mr. Sarkozy's authoritarian vision. Magistrates said the result would be to further inflate France's already burgeoning jail population. A highly critical report on French prisons by jurist Alvaro Gil-Robles said they were violence ridden, rat-infested, overcrowded, and amongst the worst in Europe. Ms. Dati has so far made no proposal to build more prisons or to improve existing ones.
Economic moves
Even Mr. Sarkozy's much-vaunted economic and social reforms are suddenly being called into question. His plans to exempt overtime wages from taxes could be challenged in court on the grounds that all income must be equally taxed. The trade unions have already begun grumbling and informed sources say he will move cautiously and slowly over forcing the unions to provide a guaranteed minimum service during transport strikes or in his bid to change the labour laws.
His decision to give tax breaks to home-owners who have contracted loans for their purchases is also likely to cost the exchequer dear. "This is a sop to the well-off. The property market is already booming and this measure will further push up the prices. What will the poor get out of it? Nothing. But it will be very good for the middle and upper classes," said real estate developer Serge Phillipot.
The newly created super-Ministry of Immigration and National Identity, which has taken over some of the powers from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs (visas), Interior (immigration), Justice, and Labour has also ruffled several feathers. Eight historians who were working on a government-sponsored project to create a new museum on the history of immigration collectively resigned. "It is not for the state to define identity. There has never been a precedent linking Immigration and National Identity in the same Ministry. Such a link stigmatises immigration and gives rise to hostility towards foreigners in times of crisis. Such a Ministry risks creating divisions and history has always shown the ravages caused by such moves," said Genevieve Dreyfus-Armand, one of the eight historians.
Mr. Sarkozy is likely to become even more powerful because of the near total collapse of the French Left. The Socialist party is in disarray with the party "elephants" slamming into each other. Segolene Royal, the defeated socialist presidential candidate, seems to have lost the momentum she had gained in the final days of campaigning. Which leads to the inevitable question: How will he handle so much power? "The danger is that if the UMP wins over 450 seats which is becoming a distinct possibility, Sarkozy will become a hyper, all-controlling president. Already there are complaints about how his media-owning friends have started censuring articles critical of him. He brooks no opposition and no argument. Will power go to his head? Will he go over the top and be unable to curb his authoritarian tendencies? It is too early to judge and one must give him the benefit of the doubt. But with a man like him vigilance should be the watchword," said commentator Alain Duhamel.
Copyright © 2007, The Hindu.