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Monday, May 7, 2007
France is Thinking Right
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Professional courtesy — one right-winger in praise of another — prompts today’s Thinking Right to pause to take note of Sunday’s French elections and the success of Nicolas Sarkozy in defeating Socialist Segolene Royal for President by 53-47 percent, with an 85 percent turnout. (Eighty-five percent? Maybe we should vote on Sunday. Some special elections here to raise taxes draw 3 percent.)
OK, so I exaggerate in calling any French politician who wins the presidency a right-winger. But then I also called former U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chaffe of Rhode Island a Republican.
Sarkozy’s victory is, however, occasion to take note of France, a country that — is there a delicate way to say this? — failed repeatedly to merit the world importance that the rhetoric of its politicians, President Jacques Chirac among them, claimed. By and large, Europe is far more significant in our past than in our future and of all the Europeans, none strutted on the world stage more boastfully than the French, and President Jacques Chirac in particular. Chirac saw France as the counter-balance, especially on Iraq, to the American super-power.
The pretensions, interestingly, were stacked on domestic turmoil, and specifically high unemployment, a bloated bureaucracy and social divisions that threaten to turn the country into a dysfunctionl welfare state where the employed vacation, the rich flee, and the young linger to await their turn for a no-fire job in the bureaucracy.
Sarkozy is not, by any means, a Reagan conservative. But for those inclined to write off France as an irrelevant irritant in world affairs, he is interesting. He’s not anti-American, vowing in fact to better relations with this country. And, for France, he’s a genuine right-winger, promising “I will restore the value of work, authority, merit and respect for the nation.” That’s the kind of talk that draws warnings from the Socialist he defeated, Segolene Royal, that plans to restore the work ethic, reduce crime and welfare dependency, would spark violence in the streets.
Sarkozy vowed to fight unions and the 35-hour work week, which makes it virtually impossible for the French to compete with China, India and other highly productive countries. He wants to scrap the 35-hour work week and make pay for any work in excess of that tax free. “Work more to earn more” was a campaign theme. France’s unemployment rate is about 8.4 percent, one of Europe’s highest. The young, and immigrants, can’t get work because it’s virtually impossible to fire anybody in France once they get a job. Sarkozy promised to reform pensions and to limit the ability of unions to strike. Union leaders say they will take to the streets if he tries. Ah, the welfare state.
France also has a serious problem with immigration — and many of those who fear that France is losing its distinctiveness because of illegal and uncontrolled immigration, which they attribute to an increase in crime, favored Sarkozy.
Sarkozy is, from across the Atlantic, a breath of fresh air, though change comes slowly, if at all, to France. Parliamentary elections are scheduled June 10 and 17 and without a majority there, he’s like George W. Bush in Washington — a voice without the power to implement the change he advocates. Buf for now, cheer. France has elected its version of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.
