It’s not just the UK that goes to the polls next week. France will elect its first truly post-war President on 6th May.
“I’m not issuing any voting instructions. The French citizens who voted for me are free to follow their conscience and make their choice”. So says Francois Bayrou, the ALDE-backed candidate, contemplating the Sego vs Sarko run-off.
But how should a conscientious liberal vote? Bayrou famously joked that the others offer a choice between the woman who wants France to be like Scandinavia and the man who wants France to be like the USA.
Either would break new ground. Segolene would be France’s first woman President (and I confess that ‘President Royal’ is nearly as pleasing a title as that of the Philippines’ leading Catholic, Cardinal Sin). Sarkozy would be France’s first immigrant President – ironic, given his description of poorer immigrants as ‘scum’.
Segolene would boost the minimum wage while closing tax loopholes for the rich, while Sarkozy would improve tax incentives for people to work longer hours and restrict unemployment benefit. Social justice vs economic reform – a familiar dilemma. In fact, France needs to do some of both.
Unlike Sarkozy, Segolene promises support for gay marriage & adoption (neatly called homoparentalité), and would reintroduce long-term immigrants’ citizenship rights which her rival cut back when a minister; while Sarkozy now supports ‘affirmative action’ for ethnic minorities.
Segolene is not liberal across the board: she opposes the decriminalisation of cannabis, and believes prostitution is contrary to international human rights law. She favours compulsory parenting classes and a form of civilian national service. Meanwhile in a throwback to Thatcherism, Sarkozy is promising to introduce the right to buy council homes.
Segolene would move from nuclear power to renewables, Sarkozy would maintain it (Bayrou fudged nuclear power but was stronger on green taxes). Both favour cutting VAT on environmentally-friendly goods & services.
If I had a vote, I’d go for Segolene. But not all liberals agree. One friend, who is backing Sarkozy not Segolene, explains it’s because of the passion the former showed when he came to speak to ex-pat voters – and because he has shown the vision for change that she feels is needed to lead France in a globalised 21st century.
French is a wonderful language for election slogans, even if in translation they sound like insurance ads. Sego offers us ‘Plus juste, la France sera plus forte’ while Sarkozy says ‘Ensemble tout devient possible’. If he doesn’t win the election, he could enter it for Eurovision instead.
Meanwhile, Bayrou is capitalising on his 18% of the vote to launch a new party, the Parti démocrate (slogan “La France de toutes nos forces”). He says “There are from now on in our country three political forces; right, left, and centre. And it is the centre which is new.” It remains to be seen if the Parti démocrate will offer a distinctive view while avoiding the marginalisation of previous centre parties in France. As Liberal Democrats we should welcome the attempt.
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Bridget Fox is the Liberal Democrat PPC for Islington South & Finsbury
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8 Comments
Another example of a ‘liberal’ supporting a Socialist. Vote Yellow, get Red!
Well – read by It’s a two-horse race……………
Cracking article Bridget.
More from that woman please!
So Deux-Cheval is perfectly happy with a candidate who blatantly appealed to racist sentiment in order to win over supporters of Jean-Marie Le Pen. Just as well we know.
Segolene Royal is clearly the better choice, though she does have worrying attributes. No doubt Deux Cheval endorses her plan to introduce voluntary forced labour, since Cameron-Gove supports this too. (Actually, it was Chirac’s greatest achievement to get rid of conscription.)
What is missing from both candidates is a commitment to grant a degree of autonomy to the French Basque Provinces, something that Mitterand promised in 1980 but reneged upon once in office.
I could not support Royal. She is a socialist and an anti-liberal. Her economic policies are almost designed to destroy what’s left of the French economy.
It says a lot about France that the closest to a liberal opponent is Bayrou – a protectionist who favours state intervention.
Neither candidate is satisfactory from a liberal point of view, but Royal is the worst of the two. At least Sarkozy is willing to talk of liberal reforms. Its a long shot but he may move France in a liberal direction – something Royal will only do through destroying the economy and possibly taking Europe with her.
Social justice vs. economic reform:
France has enough social ‘justice’, all that it does is support the interests of those who have jobs and the establishment at the expense of the poor and the young.
Economic reform is needed to allow the poorest in society to have a chance to improve their lives rather than subsisting on state handouts which cannot last forever.
Sakozy is anything but “liberal”. He is the candidate of the Parisian elite. If elected, he will do everything he possibly can to ensure that the rich get richer and the poor poorer. That is what conservatives exist to do.
Sarkozy is also the candidate of the necons. Traditionally, the French Right has stood up for French interests. Sarkozy won’t. He will ensure that any future attempts by the US military industrial complex to replace regimes that get in the way of US interests meet with no obstructions from France.
In short, Sarkozy is a very dangerous man.
I know I am too late as far as the result is concerned, but I cannot see how Liberals can support a man who called immigrants to France “scum”.