FRENCH REGIONAL ELECTIONS
HARD
CHEESE FOR CHIRAC AND THE RIGHT?
by Jeremy Josephs
Freelance Writer and
Journalist
mailto: j osephs3@wanadoo.fr
The main Web site of freelance writer Jeremy Josephs is at
www.jeremyjosephs.com
Please check there if
you might be interested in engaging him as a writer.
Many of his articles are available online. Please check the sitemap for a complete list.
We all remember De Gaulle’s heart-felt rhetorical
question concerning those intending to set up shop at the Elysée Palace. The grub might well be good, he concluded,
but “how on earth can anyone govern a country which has 246 varieties
of cheese?" President Jacques Chirac, the
present incumbent of that rather select Paris address, must surely be echoing
those sentiments as he comes to terms with the catastrophic results of France’s
regional elections. And all the more
so, perhaps, when one bears in mind that over one hundred new cheese varieties
have been officially listed since De Gaulle uttered those deliciously ironic
words.
It was a “tidal wave of bitter defeat”, Le Monde informed its
readers. No it was not, it was a “wipe
out for the Right”, Le Figaro insisted.
Other newspapers came up with a variety of equally dramatic terms in an
attempt to boost circulation, including earthquake, tidal wave
and hail of gunfire. Whatever
the slick slogan of the hour what is clear is that the scale of the defeat took nearly
everyone aback. In its first electoral
test since being founded as an umbrella to unite the warring factions of the
French right in 2002, Mr Chirac's UMP party collected just 37% of the national
vote, against 50% for the opposition Socialists with their Green and Communist
allies. The result left the
conservatives in control of just one of mainland France's 22 regional councils,
Alsace. Parts of France that have not
swung left in living memory - Brittany, lower Normandy, the Pays de la Loire
and the Auvergne - are now firmly in Socialist hands. Not one of the 19
government ministers who headed the right's regional election lists won. It was the mother of all electoral defeats,
prompting the left wing Libération to assert that “it was the beginning of
the end - this is Chirac’s twilight - the Emperor has no clothes.” What on earth had happened to the
landslide victory that had swept Chirac to power just two years ago?
“No
– not at all”, says 51 year old engineer Gilian Cadic, “that is a complete
misreprestation of what happened two years ago. The French right claimed victory – but in the first round of the
presidential elections they in fact had a majority of just 2% over the
socialists. Because most people were
disgusted about the very notion of having the fascist Le Pen in the second
round – they found themselves voting for Chirac. But reluctantly. The
massive majority he received, therefore, was not for one moment based on a
solid foundation at all.”
As the electoral dust began to settle and the scale of the Right’s
defeat became apparent, that same journal looked to the country’s apparently
naked Emperor for swift and decisive action – with the widely expected sacking
of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre
Raffarin. “Toujours là?”, the
paper cheekily enquired, barely 48 hours after the country’s devastatingly
decisive second round, - “still there?”
To which it soon became apparent that the answer was a resounding oui. Shrewd thinking on behalf of the
President – whose political obituary has been prematurely written on dozens of
occasions throughout the previous three decades.
Mr Chirac's office soon let it be known that Mr Raffarin had stepped
forward and volunteered to put his head onto the political block – tendering
the government's resignation. In an
act of symbolic defiance the president had accepted it, but that: "he
then named Jean-Pierre Raffarin Prime Minister and charged him with forming a
new government.'' This was
vintage Chirac at work. Despite the
intense pressure on the President for a rapid political response, he was
clearly reluctant to be seen as having his hand forced by events – which could
only be interpreted as a sign of his own weakened position after the electoral
rebuff. No, as the Guardian
correctly predicted Chirac evidently concluded that “his favourite whipping boy
has not been whipped enough.” Why not let Mr Raffarin
battle on with the task of reforming the health system, so that he can be
sacrificed some time after the European elections in June? That would then leave his successor 18
months to restore the government's image.
“That’s entirely right” says the French academic Gabrielle Bouleau. “Nothing would surprise me in terms of Chirac’s cynicism. Maybe you have to be that way inclined to climb the greasy pole, I don’t know. But I do think that Raffarin is going to get all of the flack, whilst the President sits back away from the line of fire and tries to position himself for another run at the Presidency. That is why he is so opposed his ambitious young minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who has made no secret of his presidential aspirations.”
It was only natural that the Socialists and Greens should step forward
to take the political credit. But the
truth is that they lack an inspiring leader and anything resembling a coherent
project. In fact the devastating blow
to the Right – to President and Prime Minister alike – is entirely attributable
to the perversity of the French electorate.
Because for the best part of two decades now French voters have
regularly returned both left and right to power. Only to punish them electorally at the first available
opportunity. Why so? For attempting any kind of economic reform
whatsoever. Woe betides any politician
or political party perceived as tampering with what the French call their acquis
sociaux but what even the liberal Guardian newspaper calls “the
prohibitively expensive Gallic model of social protection.”
But
Isabelle Terrasson, for one, a recently graduated water science engineer, is
reluctant to endorse the notion of France’s ungovernability.
“People were thoroughly fed up with the policies of the Right and they
wanted to give the government a bloody nose – and quite rightly so in my
view. This is their democratic right,
is it not? I seem to remember that in
England your system also often swings back and forth between Labour and
Conservative, does it not?”
And yet it was not as if Raffarin’s reforms were the world’s most
revolutionary – it was a relatively modest programme of cost-cutting
measures. Most independent analysts
with no political axe to grind agree that such a programme is absolutely
necessary – the health service alone is set to be some €70bn (£47bn) over
budget by 2020. The system is
positively haemorrhaging money at the rate of £7.8bn a year. If unchecked, its annual deficit will be
£46bn by 2020. And yet most people
will not hesitate to take to the streets – a long and honourable tradition in
France – as soon as the prescribed dose of medicine is required to be
taken. Within the last few months
alone Raffarin’s programmes provoked a wave of protests by groups including
scientific researchers, lawyers, hospital staff and performing artists. The Prime Minister’s plans to reform pensions
likewise brought thousands on to the streets and paralysed France in a series
of mass protests. In fact a
compromise deal was reached some time ago - to increase the years worked before
public sector workers could receive a full pension from 37.5 to 40. But only by the year 2008 and hardly the
stuff of which les barricades are constructed? Evidently not. France’s firemen were the
most recent group to take to the streets, igniting a series of fires, somewhat
bizarrely, en route.
Monsieur Fillon, the social affairs minister, echoed De Gaulle when he
spoke about the difficulty of governing France: "This all raises a big question. The left suffered a
similar total rejection only 20 months ago. In such circumstances, how can any
government carry out the programme of reforms?” Of course one hesitates to call him a bad loser – but he
certainly has a point. For every two
years, it seems, France loses patience with the latest plan to reform it, and
treats its leaders to ritual humiliation at the ballot box. Spare a thought for the hapless Lionel
Jospin, of 35-hour week fame, and knocked out of the presidential race by
Jean-Marie Le Pen and his openly racist National Front.
“And that is precisely why the best business brains are leaving
France”, adds Pierre-Yves Gerbeau, the former head of the doomed London
dome. “Its just impossible to do
business in France – and one reason why I am now happy to describe myself as an
adopted Brit. As soon as anyone tries
to grasp the nettle they come away with a rather nasty rash. Everyone is in favour of reform in theory
but no one wants to see it in practice.
And as for France’s favourite political word la cohabitation –
all I can say is rather you than me – it just doesn’t work.”
All of this prompts one to ask what the old General himself would have
made of this. He knew very well that
France was a difficult nation to govern.
And that was way back in the good old days when there were but a third
fewer cheeses than there are now. One
can only imagine what De Gaulle’s message would be to the embattled Chirac who
so often likes to assume his mantle. Hard
cheese? Maybe it is as well that
there is no adequate translation into French of that particularly
difficult-to-digest English phrase!
All rights belong to
Jeremy Josephs.
Permission is granted to make and distribute complete verbatim electronic
copies of this item for non-commercial purposes provided the copyright
information and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. All other
rights reserved. To correspond with the author, send email to josephs3@wanadoo.fr
Comments welcome.
Jeremy Josephs can be reached on the Web at: www.jeremyjosephs.com