Below is a letter that my brother wrote me about the political elections in France. For background sake: My brother is a 20 year old American studying abroad in Paris for a year. He speeks fluent french and is a french citizen. He is a political economics major at UC Berkeley and is currently at the most prestigious french school for politics. I just thought this was pretty intresting and that some of the intelligent people on ATOT might want to read it.
As you have noticed on page A23 of the newspaper, France had elections,
and they didn't go quite as planned. The first round of the presidential
elections was supposed to eliminate all but two of the record 16
candidates, leaving the socialist prime minister Jospin against the
Gaullist president Chirac. It was a foregone conclusion, and everyone
was focusing on the second round, on may 5, where polls have showed the
two neck and neck. And then, low and behold, Chirac gets 19%, Jospin 16%
and the anti-immigrant, populist, racist, fascist Jean Marie Le Pen gets
17%. So now the second round will oppose the right wing Chirac against
the extreme right Le Pen. How did this happen?
Le Pen has had 15% for the last two presidential elections, but since
the Socialists and Gaullists had more, no one really took him too
seriously, now it's come back and bit them in the ass. It's not that
France has suddenly gone hard core fascist, though 20% voted extreme
right (a second candidate got 2%), Le Pen only gained 200,000 votes. The
big difference was absentitions, a record 28% didn't bother voting. Why?
because who wants to bother with an election that wasn't supposed to
count for anything? also the two candidates were pretty unmotivating,
think Gore and Bush. Jospin enjoyed 5 years of the highest popularity
rating, prosperity, stable government, but had a minor scandal where it
was revealed he lied about his Troskyist past, had moved to the
center-left, and lead a terribly boring and inefficient campaign. Chirac
is rejoicing, since 5 more years as President means 5 less years in
jail, which is where he belongs because of corruption when he was mayor
of Paris. He invoked presidential immunity to save his ass, and sadly
the electorate still thought corruption was not a good enough reason to
not vote for him.
You also have other parties of the left siphoning votes off Jospin. The
Greens and Communists, coalition partners, took 9%, Jospin should have
forced them to withdraw their candidates since there's no difference
between the three parties. The extreme left, anti-democratic troskyist
revolutionaries took 10%, seems like the French still haven't learned
the lessons of the 20th century. A lot of those who voted for the
extreme left now regret their vote since they just wanted to pull the
center-left Jospin back to the left, and now feel like idiots since he's
not in the second round.
I see Le Pen as the natural conclusion of french exceptionality. All
parties, left and right, and the majority of the population feel France
is special (remember kindergarten teacher: "we're all special in our own
way", no France is special special) and under attack on three fronts.
First from les Anglo-Saxons, ie America thrown in the same pot as their
centuries old rivals from across the channel. Second from european
integration in Brussels, imposing anti-french decisions, even though
France still throws the greatest weight in Brussels. Third menace are
north african immigrants, who supposedly refuse to integrate and accept
to be french. I see this troika everywhere in political life, from
protecting their movie industry, to blaming brussels for everything, to
the discourse on insecurity in the arab ghettos, to Gaullist rhetoric of
a big and strong France. As all parties repeat and repeat modified
versions of these threats, it legitimizes them. Le Pen takes the notion
of the French fortress under siege from external threats and takes it to
its natural conclusion: anti-americanism, anti-euro and fiercly
anti-immigrant. He's also toned down his fascist and racist rhetoric,
playing more of a populist card. The french are also tired of the same
old political establishment. Almost all politicians and important men in
the major parties all come out of the same schools (where I'm at now),
and are disconnected from the people's reality. They're life long
politicians and have knowned nothing else, Chirac's career can be
caracterised as a serious of opportunism to stay in power. The field was
ripe for an elitist bashing populist to join in.
The two main parties moved so close to the center that voters couldn't
see and difference, and that helps the extremes. The French have a
mentality of demaning the state solve all their problems, this goes back
to the construction of the nation from the centralized state during the
middle ages. As a result you have state intervention and enterprise
everywhere, close to 50% of GDP is spent by the state, taxes range from
40-54%. The center consensus is on more of the same, even though the
same hasn't been able to solve unemployment, and now can't handle social
exclusion and the crime that goes with it. The one candidate proposing
real, viable alternative (sorry Trotsky), the liberal candidate, got 3%
- less than two Troskyists, and the hunters party. Any talk of
liberalism is seen as the trojan horse for les anglo-saxons and a menace
to the french model, even though the liberal is only pointing out the
laws of economics. The left is stuck in the 1930s Front Populaire, the
Gaullists in 1965. The left needs to drop the socialist rhetoric and
admit they're the pragmatists they have been since 1983, in other words
try to find a third way like Blair has done so successfully. The right
needs to actually find a program other than "a strong France" and the
pawns to big business.
Chirac will thankfully win the second round easily. He has refused to
debate Le Pen, though not required, the debate is surely a
quasi-institution and Chirac should stand up for France and be able to
dismantle his racist fascist opponent. But no, he knows that Le Pen
would demolish him by bringing up all the scandals and lies, which would
hurt him for the legislatives in June and his credibility as president.
As for the popular reaction, it's laughably predictable. Instead of hard
reflection on why 20% of their country voted for a fascist, the French
get in the street. Banners, slogans, protests, strikes, "a show of
force" that France is not racist (ha!). Hysterical fervor at its best.
Class at my elite elite school (Chirac and Jospin both alumns) has been
cancelled today so as to bring in all the party head honchos and
political scientists to rail on the situation all day long, followed by
a march. Fine by me. Watch the newspapers, may 1 is set to be a
reenactement of the 1930s - Fascists against Communists heaving stones
at each other in the streets of Paris, wouldn't miss it for the world!
Off to protest,
David
As you have noticed on page A23 of the newspaper, France had elections,
and they didn't go quite as planned. The first round of the presidential
elections was supposed to eliminate all but two of the record 16
candidates, leaving the socialist prime minister Jospin against the
Gaullist president Chirac. It was a foregone conclusion, and everyone
was focusing on the second round, on may 5, where polls have showed the
two neck and neck. And then, low and behold, Chirac gets 19%, Jospin 16%
and the anti-immigrant, populist, racist, fascist Jean Marie Le Pen gets
17%. So now the second round will oppose the right wing Chirac against
the extreme right Le Pen. How did this happen?
Le Pen has had 15% for the last two presidential elections, but since
the Socialists and Gaullists had more, no one really took him too
seriously, now it's come back and bit them in the ass. It's not that
France has suddenly gone hard core fascist, though 20% voted extreme
right (a second candidate got 2%), Le Pen only gained 200,000 votes. The
big difference was absentitions, a record 28% didn't bother voting. Why?
because who wants to bother with an election that wasn't supposed to
count for anything? also the two candidates were pretty unmotivating,
think Gore and Bush. Jospin enjoyed 5 years of the highest popularity
rating, prosperity, stable government, but had a minor scandal where it
was revealed he lied about his Troskyist past, had moved to the
center-left, and lead a terribly boring and inefficient campaign. Chirac
is rejoicing, since 5 more years as President means 5 less years in
jail, which is where he belongs because of corruption when he was mayor
of Paris. He invoked presidential immunity to save his ass, and sadly
the electorate still thought corruption was not a good enough reason to
not vote for him.
You also have other parties of the left siphoning votes off Jospin. The
Greens and Communists, coalition partners, took 9%, Jospin should have
forced them to withdraw their candidates since there's no difference
between the three parties. The extreme left, anti-democratic troskyist
revolutionaries took 10%, seems like the French still haven't learned
the lessons of the 20th century. A lot of those who voted for the
extreme left now regret their vote since they just wanted to pull the
center-left Jospin back to the left, and now feel like idiots since he's
not in the second round.
I see Le Pen as the natural conclusion of french exceptionality. All
parties, left and right, and the majority of the population feel France
is special (remember kindergarten teacher: "we're all special in our own
way", no France is special special) and under attack on three fronts.
First from les Anglo-Saxons, ie America thrown in the same pot as their
centuries old rivals from across the channel. Second from european
integration in Brussels, imposing anti-french decisions, even though
France still throws the greatest weight in Brussels. Third menace are
north african immigrants, who supposedly refuse to integrate and accept
to be french. I see this troika everywhere in political life, from
protecting their movie industry, to blaming brussels for everything, to
the discourse on insecurity in the arab ghettos, to Gaullist rhetoric of
a big and strong France. As all parties repeat and repeat modified
versions of these threats, it legitimizes them. Le Pen takes the notion
of the French fortress under siege from external threats and takes it to
its natural conclusion: anti-americanism, anti-euro and fiercly
anti-immigrant. He's also toned down his fascist and racist rhetoric,
playing more of a populist card. The french are also tired of the same
old political establishment. Almost all politicians and important men in
the major parties all come out of the same schools (where I'm at now),
and are disconnected from the people's reality. They're life long
politicians and have knowned nothing else, Chirac's career can be
caracterised as a serious of opportunism to stay in power. The field was
ripe for an elitist bashing populist to join in.
The two main parties moved so close to the center that voters couldn't
see and difference, and that helps the extremes. The French have a
mentality of demaning the state solve all their problems, this goes back
to the construction of the nation from the centralized state during the
middle ages. As a result you have state intervention and enterprise
everywhere, close to 50% of GDP is spent by the state, taxes range from
40-54%. The center consensus is on more of the same, even though the
same hasn't been able to solve unemployment, and now can't handle social
exclusion and the crime that goes with it. The one candidate proposing
real, viable alternative (sorry Trotsky), the liberal candidate, got 3%
- less than two Troskyists, and the hunters party. Any talk of
liberalism is seen as the trojan horse for les anglo-saxons and a menace
to the french model, even though the liberal is only pointing out the
laws of economics. The left is stuck in the 1930s Front Populaire, the
Gaullists in 1965. The left needs to drop the socialist rhetoric and
admit they're the pragmatists they have been since 1983, in other words
try to find a third way like Blair has done so successfully. The right
needs to actually find a program other than "a strong France" and the
pawns to big business.
Chirac will thankfully win the second round easily. He has refused to
debate Le Pen, though not required, the debate is surely a
quasi-institution and Chirac should stand up for France and be able to
dismantle his racist fascist opponent. But no, he knows that Le Pen
would demolish him by bringing up all the scandals and lies, which would
hurt him for the legislatives in June and his credibility as president.
As for the popular reaction, it's laughably predictable. Instead of hard
reflection on why 20% of their country voted for a fascist, the French
get in the street. Banners, slogans, protests, strikes, "a show of
force" that France is not racist (ha!). Hysterical fervor at its best.
Class at my elite elite school (Chirac and Jospin both alumns) has been
cancelled today so as to bring in all the party head honchos and
political scientists to rail on the situation all day long, followed by
a march. Fine by me. Watch the newspapers, may 1 is set to be a
reenactement of the 1930s - Fascists against Communists heaving stones
at each other in the streets of Paris, wouldn't miss it for the world!
Off to protest,
David
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