[A few translated passages.]
Figaro Oct. 8, 2008
The Financial Crisis Reorients the Debate within the Socialist Party
The left of the party believes its critical analysis of le liberalisme is strengthened
Pity those who have toyed with the word “liberal.” Bertand Delanoe is at the top of that list. Last spring, in his book “Audacity,” the mayor of Paris thought he would seem modern by declaring himself “socialist” and “liberal” politically and philosophically. Since then, the financial crisis has come, and that word, which might lend itself to confusion, has disappeared from his speeches. As well as from those of Segolene Royal, who presented herself as Blairist two years ago. Now, she demands the banning of layoffs in firms that offshore business and receive state aid.
In the PS, less than a month from the vote on motions [party platform statements presented by candidates] at the party convention in Reims, it’s less the “nature of the party” that’s being discussed than the calling into question of the capitalist system. A wave of bank nationalizations have marked the return of the state. Manna from heaven for socialists who thought they had lost the ideological battle [….]
"What's collapsing today is part of what you [Sarkozy] called the ideological battle - that is, economic liberalism," declared [party leader] Francois Hollande on Wednesday in the National Assembly during a debate on the crisis. [...]
[Martine Aubry, one of the frontrunners for PS leader, and author of the 35-hour week:] "Nothing would be worse than to think it's enough to punish a few individuals, to make new rules, for example prudential regulations for banks, new rules for credit rating agencies, European regulators. It's the system itself that's in question, we must again put the real economy before finance, a better redistribution of wealth in our country and in the world."