Le jour 2 de Sarko
First, housecleaning.
VILLEPIN RESIGNS AS FRENCH PRIME MINISTER
PARIS, May 16, 2007 (AFP)
AFTER 12 YEARS, CHIRAC BIDS EMOTIONAL FAREWELL TO FRANCE
PARIS, May 16, 2007 (AFP)
[Polite applause. Pause. Barely surpressed glee. Pause. Smile.]
We cannot but be happy at the exits of the two most baleful magouilleurs in French government, one a chauvinist, a screamer, an aureate twit, and prime minister, the other a corrupt and corrupting party boss without a party, a cheat, a liar (Supermenteur !), a shameless and tireless self-promoter and president of the Republic.
Good-bye. Good luck. Good riddance.
SARKOZY, VOWING CHANGE, SUCCEEDS CHIRAC AS PRESIDENT
PARIS May 16, 2007 (AFP) - In a symbolic handover of powers, Chirac passed on the launch codes to France's nuclear arsenal and briefed Sarkozy on current agenda items before being driven from the Elysee palace for the last time.
No, dear skimmer, not the boot to bum. A car is meant. A shiny black sedan of French make at the end of a long red carpet.
HIT THE ROAD JACK AND DON'T YOU COME BACK NO MO' NO MO' NO MO'
Sarko Escorts Jack -- At A Brisk Clip -- To His Waiting Ride
[Photo credit: L. Blevennec © Service photographique de la Présidence de la République]
A 21-gun salute rang out from the Invalides esplanade across the river Seine, as the official results of Sarkozy's election victory were read out to an audience of invited guests in the palace's ornate main reception hall.
CÉRÉMONIE D'INSTALLATION DU PRÉSIDENT NICOLAS SARKOZY
[Photo credit: L. Blevennec © Service photographique de la Présidence de la République]
Sarko then gave a brief investiture speech enumerating the woes of France in eleven (by our count) "imperatives" imposed on him by the French people.
- Imperative of bringing the French together because France is strong only when she is united, and today she needs to be strong to take up the challenges confronting her.
- Imperative of keeping promises and honouring commitments because trust has never been as shaken, as fragile.
- A moral imperative because never has the crisis of values been as deep, because never has the need for people to regain their bearings been as strong.
- Imperative of restoring the value of work, of effort, of merit, of respect, because these values underpin human dignity and requirement for social progress.
- Imperative of tolerance and opening-up because never have intolerance and sectarianism been so destructive, because never has it been so necessary for all women and all men of goodwill to pool their talents, their intellectual skill, their ideas for conceiving the future.
- Imperative of change because never has inertia been so dangerous for France as in this world in flux where everyone strives to change faster than the others, where any delay can be fatal and quickly becomes irretrievable.
- Imperative of security and protection because it has never been so necessary to fight the fear of the future and feeling of vulnerability which discourage initiative and risk-taking.
- Imperative for order and authority because we have too often given in to disorder and violence from which those who suffer the greatest are the most vulnerable and humble.
- Imperative to deliver results because the French have had enough of nothing in their daily lives ever improving, because the French have had enough of their lives becoming ever tougher, ever harder, because the French have had enough of sacrifices being imposed on them with no result.
- Imperative of justice because for a very long time so many French have not felt such a strong sense of injustice, and had the feeling that the sacrifices weren't fairly shared, that everyone did not have equal rights.
- Imperative of breaking with past behaviours, ways of thinking and intellectual conformism because never have the problems to be resolved been so completely new.
A sure sign that something's different, both Sarko's investiture speech and his follow-on memorial speech at Bois de Boulogne are posted to the official Web site of the Présidence de la République -- in ENGLISH! With English-titled links on the home page! Ou-la-la ! Somebody's going to be upset.
PFFT (What is this?): Clean house 3½ | Rayonnement français 0
Ex-Jack II:
Le jour précédent jour 1 de Sarko
Yesterday Jack bid adieu to the French people.
CHIRAC SAYS GOODBYE TO FRENCH ELECTORATE
PARIS May 16, 2007 (Guardian/AP)
In another rubber-face bobble-head televised performance, Jack said he was proud to have served, offered the usual uninspiring blandishments, and pronounced his faint wish for Sarko's success. He did not name one lasting accomplishment from his 40+ years of frontline politics, whereas modesty precluded listing his many remarkable -- in some cases, spectacular -- failures (and the follow-on), defeats (and here), climbdowns (and here, and this), misfires (and here), foirades (and this, and this), boondoggles, perfidies (and this), scandals (and this -- and here, and this), catastrophes, and assorted embarrassments (and this and this and this -- and here, and this).*
All this in a little less than six minutes. The Republic thanks him for his brevity.
JACK CONTEMPLATES THE VOID OF HIS PRESIDENCY
Nothing To See, Lots To Think About
You can watch Jack's sayonara theater here (WMP). The transcript (in French) here.
* Our links are, of course, representative, not exhaustive.
PFFT (What is this?): Bye-bye, Jack 4 | Don't come back 5 | Rayonnement français 0
What Now? IV:
Le jour 1 de Sarko
Hubert Védrine is out. [Polite applause.]
NICOLAS SARKOZY DÉFEND "L'OUVERTURE"
ET PRÉPARE SA RÉVOLUTION GOUVERNEMENTALE
[NICOLAS SARKOZY DEFENDS "OVERTURE"
AND PREPARES HIS GOVERNMENT REVOLUTION]
15 mai 2007 (Figaro) - Le socialiste Bernard Kouchner a déjà dit oui au Quai d'Orsay. L'ancien directeur de cabinet de Kouchner et actuel président d'Emmaüs, Martin Hirsch, serait aussi en lice pour un poste de secrétaire d'État. Hubert Védrine n'en sera pas : il aurait été « trop gourmand », réclamant à la fois les Affaires européennes et le Commerce extérieur.[The Socialist Bernard Kouchner* already said yes to the Foreign Ministry. Kouchner's former chief of staff and current president of Emmaüs, Martin Hirsch, is also in the running for the post of Secretary of State. Hubert Védrine will not be: he was deemed "too greedy", demanding (dossiers for) both the European commerce and foreign trade.]
Below is as good a reason as any for dumping the overreaching M. Védrine. He is a malefic -- and clumsy -- enabler.
Hubert Védrine,Jacques Chirac said things that many experts are saying around the world, even in the United States; that is to say, that a country [Iran, for example] that possesses the bomb does not use it and automatically enters the system of deterrence and doesn't take absurd risks.
former French foreign minister, posturing as the Machiavelli he is not,
advancing the curious theory that a nation (Iran, for example)
with nuclear bombs poses less of a threat than when without
February 2, 2007 (IHT/LCI television)
* Dr. Koucher, a co-founder of Médecins sans frontières (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) and of Médecins du monde (MDM, Doctors Of The World), early on aspired to the Élysée. Although popular with the public, M. Koucher has been punished politically for supporting the liberation of Iraq. [Hat tip: The Indispensible Carine]
PFFT (What is this?): A more sensible cabinet in the making 3 | Rayonnement français 0
Ex-Jack I:
Le jour 1 de Sarko
Today the office and powers of the French presidency formally transfer to Sarko.
NEW WAXWORKS
Dummy On The Left Now Available For International Conferences And Birthday Rentals
[Photo credit: Eric Feferberg/AFP/Getty Images]
The caption reads:
PARIS May 14, 2007 (Guardian) - An employee of the Grevin wax museum holds the figure of president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy to replace the one of the outgoing president, Mr Chirac
SARKOZY TO BE SWORN IN AS PRESIDENT
PARIS May16, 2007 (swissinfo/Reuters) - Chirac is due to welcome Sarkozy...at his official Elysee Palace residence around 0900 (GMT). Chirac will hand over the secret codes of France's nuclear strike force to the 52-year-old, who comfortably defeated Socialist Segolene Royal in a May 6 run-off ballot.After proclamation of the official results by the head of the Constitutional Council, Sarkozy will receive the insignia of office and make his first speech as head of state to a gathering of friends, family, outgoing Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin [the mystic mouette], the speakers of parliament and other dignitaries.
A 21-gun salute outside the historic Invalides landmark in central Paris will mark the start of his five-year term.
Things just won't be the same. [Pause.] Well, we hope they won't be the same.
PFFT (What is this?): Ex-Jack 5 | Rayonnement français 0
France, Terror Target X:
A SEA OF BLOOD
They Hate You. They Will Kill You.
Another terrorist organization announces the usual.
AL-QAEDA GROUP THREATENS ATTACKS IN FRANCE
DUBAI May 15, 2007 (AFP) - An Al-Qaeda front group in Europe threatened on Tuesday to launch bloody attacks in France in response to the election of "crusader and Zionist" Nicolas Sarkozy as president.
There is just no pleasing some people (and this).
"As you have chosen the crusader and Zionist Sarkozy as a leader ... we in the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades warn you that the coming days will see a bloody jihadist campaign ... in the capital of Sarkozy," the group's "Europe division" said in an Internet statement addressed to the French people.
Huh? The Brigadiers were backing Ségo?
The campaign will be "against all those who allow themselves to follow the policy" of the US administration, said the statement whose authenticity could not be verified.
Islamites never shed innocent blood. If you happen to be blown up or beheaded or bludgeoned and maimed, well, dear skimmer, you are -- or were -- de facto, a willing tool of the inner most councils of the NSA.
The group previously claimed responsibility for the July 2005 terror attacks in London, as well those in Madrid in March 2004 and in Istanbul in November 2003.
Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades professes terror, threatens terror, commits terror, and openly claims responsibilty for terror, yet AFP can think of nothing more descriptive than to call this terrorist organization "the group". The solicitude is lost on the Brigadiers, who, if nothing else, know what they are about.
They are about wanting to be terrorist boogeymen. Anything bad happens, the Brigadiers claim it as their handiwork. All the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades claims are in doubt, as are the Brigardiers themselves. Nonetheless, if they threaten, we are obliged to pay attention.
PFFT (What is this?): Reportorial delicacy 4 | Rayonnement français 0
The Vagina Vote:
9 jours d'après - tour 2
Ségo,Because I am a woman, things will be different.
setting the WABAC machine to the 19th century
March 14, 2007 (IHT)
GENITAL POLITICS
Bad Sexitude* Vs. Good Sexitude
Jean d'Arc. Motherhood. Bikinitude. Ségo invoked or exploited all these things to call attention to herself as a woman candidate for the presidency of France. She openly held that a redundant X chromosome especially qualified her for the presidency. We imagine her reasoning something like this: if a man with one X is capable of being president, then a woman with double Xs is doubly capable. The claim is patently sexist, but it's OK. Ségo believed this the good kind of sexism because, well, because it was meant to benefit her.
Besides, sexist cant is more fun and breezy than, say, costing out unfunded government candy.
Much of the media focus on her is because she is a woman, and a rather striking woman at that, looking much younger than her 53 years, with a lovely smile. Judges of a certain age would doubtless describe her as "fragrant".
And this:
One understands why Ségolène Royal has fallen for the kitten heel. Reliable, elegant, this is the Ford Focus of footwear. The kitten heel represents a safe pair of hands, promising just enough of a lift to make a calf look slightly elongated and streamlined in photographs.It’s cute without being too sexy, pointy without being dominatrix and has also, within living memory, been fashionable, thereby demonstrating the in-touch-with-the-common-herd instincts of those who wear it. Poor, height-challenged Sarko.
And no Ségo story was without its reminder of her female novelty: the first woman with a fair shot at being the first woman president of France [pace, Arlette Laguiller, Marie-George Buffet, et Dominique Voynet], which became after April 22 the first woman to make the runoff, which became after May 6 the first woman to make the runoff and not be elected the first woman president of France.
Ségo's vagina enjoyed early success, and with the opposition L'UMPs worried about a vagina gap, Defense Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie** briefly surfaced as a possible présidentiable. Although Mdm. le Ministre had a handy, serviceable vagina, at 61, she lacked the necessary bikinitude to enchant the press.
While her vagina was hot, the rest of Ségo was being viewed more cooly. The French had begun to notice that when she spoke, well, it wasn't clear what was said. Or if it was clear, then Ségo held a press conference to say she hadn't been understood.
With Sarko's nomination, Ségo soon felt his rude prick in her poll numbers. With falling numbers, she decided to drop the nice touch and be tough, but came off as pouty and desperate. She accused Sarko of "thuggish tactics", using "war-like words", and unleashing "violence and brutality" should he have the temerity of allowing himself to be elected.
In all this, the Royal camp dearly hoped that the 53% of the voter rolls with vaginas would be naturally empathic and rally to the only candidate with a bona fide vagina. It was not to be -- vaginas being no more politically empathic than legs or toes -- French women proved cannier than political handlers and media consultants.
WOMEN VOTERS SHUN SEGOLENE ROYAL
PARIS May 7, 2007 (Reuters) - Socialist Segolene Royal failed to win over a majority of women voters in France's presidential election and may have paid a price for focusing too much on her gender at the expense of promoting her policies.Only 48 percent of women voted for Royal, according to an Ipsos poll conducted on election day on Sunday, while 52 percent supported rightist rival and overall winner Nicolas Sarkozy.
The weak female support is a bitter personal blow for Royal, who had played up her feminist credentials throughout the campaign, frequently defending policies she would want "as a mother" and accusing critics of male chauvinism.
Some women said the glamorous Royal, a mother of four, had focused too much on the symbolism linked to becoming France's first female president.
Amen.
* Sex + plenitude = sex-itude. For context, see here.
** Former dimmest bulb in the dark Chirac marquee™, a distinction since awarded to the current foreign minister.
PFFT (What is this?): Glamour 3 | Bikinitude 2½ | Politics 1¾ | Rayonnement français 0
Whinging In The Workers Paradise:
UK WORKERS BEHIND FRENCH AS 'WORST WHINGERS'
May 14, 2007 (Telegraph) - Britons are among the biggest whingers in the workplace, a report claimed yesterday.
But, of course, they are not the worst whingers.
A study of work attitudes among almost 14,000 employees in 23 countries showed that the French were most unhappy with their pay and working hours, with staff from Britain and Sweden joint second.The study by research group FDS also covered how employees felt work impinged on their private lives. Charlotte Cornish, the managing director of FDS:
"The French come out on top - it seems unlikely that Nicolas Sarkozy's election and the likely shift to more Anglo-Saxon economic practices will make workers in France any more happy with their lot."
The top three workplace whingers are socialist paradises, First-place France and tied Britain and Sweden. America came in third. Holland has the least whingiest workplace.
Among the top whingers French workers are the least discommoded by work:
According to an index compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the average number of hours "effectively" devoted to work is only 617 yearly for France, as against 801 in Britain and 865 in the United States.
They also enjoy the greatest combined paid holiday and vacation days, thirty-nine business days. [Pause.] Just shy of eight weeks off -- two months.
How do the French endure the mild afflictions, the light burdens of their easy lot? Oh, the rotten luck of the good life! The humanity!
The French insist at all costs that their special "social model" be preserved. And still they are among the unhappiest, gloomiest, most heavily medicated, complaining, and dissatisfied people of privilege on the planet. Well, these certainly are worthy distinctions to defend on the barricades.
Although France cannot provide the world easy drugs, jobs, short work hours, paid holidays and vacations. or featherbeds -- things she also cannot provide 9% of the French -- nonetheless, she is ready -- always ready -- ready and anxious! -- to share with all her complaining culture.
PFFT (What is this?): Weeping for afflicted France 0 | Rayonnement français 0
What Now? III:
7 jours d'après - tour 2
The Who,Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss
Won't Get Fooled Again
Who's Next June 25, 1971 (Polydor)
More than any campaign blandishments, Sarko's cabinet picks will tell just how much purported change France must endure.
THE NEW GOVERNMENT WILL BE LIMITED TO 15 MEMBERS
Well, this sounded like a promising improvement over the current cabinet population (32). Alas, the headline tally does not include the gaggle of ministres délégués, scil., the deputy ministers, who will be appointed after the June legislative elections .
May 7, 2007 (Figaro) - Michele Alliot-Marie [former dimmest bulb in the dark Chirac marquee, and here], who dreamed of being prime minister, seems set to swap defence for another coveted post: the Foreign Ministry. That is if it does not go to Alain Juppe [and this]. But it seems that the former prime minister is more tempted by the presidency of the National Assembly. With Alliot-Marie at the Quai d'Orsay, Michel Barnier [and here and here] could replace her at the Defence Ministry. The name of Philippe Douste-Blazy [current dimmest bulb in the dark Chirac marquee, and here and here and here and here and here, and here, and here] is also being cited for this job.
That so many stalwart chiraquiens are in the mix is disappointing. That M. Douste-Blazy should be considered for anything is astonishing.
And then there is this.
HUBERT VÉDRINE APERÇU SORTANT
DES BUREAUX DE NICOLAS SARKOZY
[HUBERT VÉDRINE SEEN LEAVING
THE OFFICES OF NICOLAS SARKOZY]
11 mai 2007 (Le Monde)
NICOLAS SARKOZY AURAIT APPROCHÉ
HUBERT VÉDRINE POUR LE QUAI D'ORSAY
[NICOLAS SARKOZY SAID TO HAVE APPROACHED
HUBERT VÉDRINE FOR THE FOREIGN MINISTRY]
12 mai 2007 (Le Monde) - Le président élu français Nicolas Sarkozy a proposé à Hubert Védrine, ancien ministre de Lionel Jospin, d'être le prochain ministre des affaires étrangères de son gouvernement, et ce dernier y "réfléchit", a-t-on appris, vendredi 11 mai, de sources concordantes.... Patrick Devedjian, conseiller politique du président de l'UMP, n'a pas exclu, vendredi, la nomination d'Hubert Védrine si ce dernier "est d'accord" avec la politique extérieure prônée par le président élu. "Quand on entre dans le gouvernement, c'est qu'on est d'accord pour mettre en œuvre le projet présidentiel", a expliqué le député des Hauts-de-Seine.
[French president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy proposed to Hubert Védrine, former minister of Lionel Jospin, to be the next Foreign Minister of his government, and that the latter "reflects", as reported Friday May 11 by corroborating sources.
... Friday Patrick Devedjian, adviser political of the president of UMP, did not rule out the appointment of Hubert Védrine if the latter "agrees" with the foreign policy preached by the president-elect. "When one enters the government, one agrees to advance the presidential project", explained the Hauts-de-Seine deputy.]
[Emphasis in the original.]
And just who is Hubert Védrine? M. Védrine is a former Socialist adviser to President Mitterand and a foreign minister in the government of Lionel Jospin. M. Védrine, for those who remember, is remembered as the neologist of "hyperpuissance", a signal word for an America that France considered too big, too strong, and too influential. He is a key architect of France's back-door plan for greatness -- a multipolar world of competing "poles", each with France at its center.
Writing for the Hoover Institute in 2000, a benighted Christopher Caldwell describes an economically vibrant France in the warm embrace of globalization (la France qui gagne), but ready to rewrite the rules to better favor France. Although Mr. Caldwell's bright France did not pan out, he does give a good account of Védrinism.
The cornerstone of [M. Védrine's] new thinking is the collection of non-governmental political activists who increasingly move politics around the world — feminists, tax protesters, World Trade Organization paranoids, runners of privatized social services. He also keeps an eye on the crypto-governmental powers of the mass media and an activist judiciary.… Védrine calls these institutions "international civil society." In describing them, he sounds like a cross between the Montesquieu he dreams of and the Machiavelli he is. He recognizes that this civil society is "for now, less codified, less regulated, less transparent than traditional powers." On one hand that makes it more free. On the other, that makes it less democratic, as well as culturally imperialistic, since "the most influential civil societies are necessarily those of the most powerful countries." No matter: International civil society will be the tool France uses to "civilize" or "humanize" globalism.
... With the end of the superpower rivalry, the United States has become, to use the term that is Védrine’s contribution to the French language, an hyperpuissance, or "hyperpower." Védrine nowadays never uses the word without adding that, in French, the prefix hyper- lacks the associations it has in English with disease (really big French supermarkets are called hypermarchés), but that doesn’t mean that the term is used in a friendly way. Védrine is absolutely explicit about turning Europe into a second "pole" to counter American influence. France may not be a hyperpower, but it is one of seven countries Védrine identifies as "powers of global influence" — the others are Britain, Germany, Russia, China, Japan, and (maybe) India. The three big European states could provide plausible competition for the United States.
In theory, there’s nothing anti-American about Védrine’s wish to see Europe play a larger role on the world’s stage, particularly its cultural stage.
But the idea that NATO used to proclaim of a "Euro-Atlantic world" strikes him as bunk. The differences between the States and Europe are wider than ever, he thinks, and these differences will lend France’s language, culture, and political institutions a "seduction effect" in the eyes of those sated with American products — provided his countrymen can hang in there and guard their cultural independence. "The fear of uniformity," he says, "will reinforce a need for diversity, and thus, among other things, a need for French" [la France qui gagne—contre les États-Unis]. Védrine admits — even lauds — the strength of American culture. He grants that the "quasi-monopoly conquered by American cultural industries [was] obtained through a vitality that none will deny, a creativity that everyone recognizes and admires." But he adds, "That rhetoric doesn’t oblige us to be swamped by a cultural tidal wave."
This is not for domestic consumption only. It’s an appeal to all the world’s cultures to accept French leadership in a global cultural battle. Védrine claims that democratization will be more effective if it’s not perceived merely as Westernization or Americanization... "To demand perfect democracy right away is to think in religious terms," Védrine says. "If you think that way — dogmatically — you’re logically led to think in terms of sanctions, punishments, excommunications and anathemas. That’s not my style." Furthermore, France cannot afford to think religiously about democracy. "If we’re only allowed to associate with friends who are comme il faut," Védrine continues, "who think like us, we might as well renounce the possibility of acting on any problem at all, of resolving the slightest crisis — and leave the field to the United States." ... There is an idealistic side to Védrine’s democracy theorizing — under his foreign policy leadership, for instance, France has been far tougher than the U.S. on what he calls Russia’s "Potemkin democracy." But there is a pragmatic side to Védrinism, too. France cannot compete against America if the battle for Third World hearts and minds is carried out through rubber-stamped U.S. conferences, aid packages, heavily staffed embassies, and projection of military power.
[Plain italics in original. Bold italics added.]
Of course, what is bunk are the many underlying assumptions of Védrinism.
That France wants to compete in some multipolar configuration with America is fair enough. Védrinism, though, is little more than opposing America for being America, its strategy little more than isolating a lonely America.
But America is not lonely. Of the "powers of global influence" given by M. Védrine above, America arguably has stronger ties than France with more than half. Just what is the "seductive" French appeal that will peel Japan away from America? This is some dreamy arrogance on M. Védrine's part and betrays a zero understanding of Japan, its American relationship, and its political culture. That M. Védrine thinks France can "seduce" Russia and China into French schemes to serve French interests, well, that is to think France very clever indeed. Even M. Védrine probably does not think himself that clever, which is why Védrinism fishes about amongst smaller nations or where anti-Americanism is already rooted, sparing Védrinism the spadework.
And while Védrinism touts "diversity", it envisions knitting everybody up in world institutions of governance, regulation, and oversight, which, needless to say, are to be dominated by French "guidance". Again this is to think France very clever indeed.
Védrinism hopes to convert middling France into the hyperpuissance, not by virtue of any actual power intrinsically possessed, but by connivance so massive and mazy as to be silly.
HUBERT VÉDRINE "RÉSERVE SA RÉPONSE" POUR LE QUAI D’ORSAY
[HUBERT VÉDRINE "RESERVES HIS RESPONSE" FOR THE FOREIGN MINISTRY]
12 mai 2007 (Figaro)
We can only hope he says no.
So much for all the gush being gushed in a wishful American press.
OUR NEW AMI SALUTES AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL
PARIS May 7, 2007 (NYPost)
It would appear that whatever else Sarko may ask the French to endure, they will not be asked to endure America-friendliness.
PFFT (What is this?): Same-old same-old 3¾ | Rayonnement français 0
Bayrou Who? Redux:
6 jours d'après - tour 2
Newspapers love love stories. And the love stories they love best are the stories about the editors' latest darling. To wit, the valentine press accorded François Bayrou after the 1er tour, which he lost with 18.57% of the vote.
But M. Bayrou was pronounced the loser who would determine the winner. Intoxicated by his flattering press, M. Bayrou played coy, eventually turning back overtures from both the "establishment finalists" -- although Sego got more play than Sarko -- and announced he would found a brand new party unbeholden to either establishment party. (All neatly recounted for you here.)
As we have argued, this leaves M. Bayrou with no constituency.
FRANÇOIS BAYROU BAPTISERA SON PARTI "MOUVEMENT DÉMOCRATE"*
5 mai 2007 (Le Monde)
BAYROU LAUNCHES NEW PARTY, VOWS TO KEEP SARKOZY IN CHECK
PARIS May 10, 2007 (AFP)
BAYROU FOUNDS A NEW PARTY BUT DEPUTIES JOIN SARKOZY
May 11, 2007 (Independent) - The French centrist politician François Bayrou split with the majority of his own members of parliament yesterday and launched a new political party, the Mouvement Démocrate.... By a show of hands at a conference in Paris, grass-roots members voted overwhelmingly to dissolve M. Bayrou's old party, the Union pour la Démocratie Francaise (UDF).
However, 21** out of the 29 UDF deputies in the national assembly repudiated M. Bayrou. They have bowed to pressure from France's president-elect, Nicolas Sarkozy, and agreed to join a "centrist" section of his centre-right party, the Union Pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP).
Having been abandoned by the vast majority of his former deputies, M. Bayrou has yet to attract one elected official*** from any other party to his Mouvement Démocrate.
M. Bayrou was unabashed yesterday. He said that his new party had been flooded with at least 20,000 demands for membership.† "We are not interested in the outgoing members of parliament but the incoming ones," he said.One opinion poll yesterday predicted M. Bayrou's new party would win between eight and 13 out of 577 members in the National Assembly - an excellent performance for a new party, but hardly an "anti-establishment force".
"Excellent"! And without having yet taken one of these 8-13 seats (1%-2%). Coincidentally eight seats correspond exactly to the number of UDF deputies (including M. Bayrou) who have reinvented themselves in the Mouvement Démocrate and assumes the advantage of UDF incumbency. This is no gain at all, much less an excellent showing. But even 13 seats will be shy of the 20 needed to form a parlimentary group for committee appointments and fnancial support.
CENTRIST BAYROU RISKS FADING TO THE BACKGROUND IN FRANCE
PARIS May 11, 2007 (IHT) - [François Bayrou] has failed to persuade most of his legislators to stay by his side. The 22 defectors all won their seats with the help of conservative votes and were told that if they did not back Sarkozy, the conservatives would field an opponent. To run unopposed, they were asked to promise in writing never to vote a motion of censure against the government and never to oppose a budget throughout the five-year term.Bayrou's prospects for another bid for the presidency in 2012 may depend less on his party's success in the June elections and more on Sarkozy's performance as president and the Socialists' ability to stop their internal divisions from splitting the party. As the right-leaning newspaper Le Figaro put it Friday:
"Bayrou is condemned to wait for the failure of the others."
* Shortened up to Le Modem.
** This number is given as 22 by AFP and IHT.
*** Azouz Begag, a deputy minister for equal opportunities in the Villepin government who quit his post to support M. Bayrou, has never held elected office.
† Sign up here.
PFFT (What is this?): Waiting on failure 3 | Rayonnement français 0
Félicitations de Ségolène Royal IV:
5 jours d'après - tour 2
Le choix de Nicolas Sarkozy est un choix dangereux. ... Ma responsabilité, aujourd'hui, c'est de lancer une alerte par rapport au risque de cette candidature et par rapport aux violences et aux brutalités qui se déclencheront dans le pays.[The choice of Nicolas Sarkozy is a dangerous choice... My responsibility, today, is to sound the alarm about the risks of this candidacy and speak to the violence and brutality that will be triggered in the country.]
Ségo,
presidential washout greenlighting chaos in France
May 4, 2007 (MSN)
Lest you think Ségo did not know that of which she spoke, below is a screenshot of a January Web page from one of her trademark Desirs d'Avenir sites.
The Royal campaign began its anti-Sarkozy fear-mongering earlier on. Ségo spoke with some confidence of the "violence and brutality" in the aftermath of a Sarko victory because she and her people had worked so hard laying the foundation from which such "violence and brutality" would spring. Luckily, like so many Socialist schemes it lacked coherence, inspired few, and fizzled.
Foreground sign reads: My Interior Minister Frightens Me
Background sign reads: No To The Fascist / No To Sarko
For more greetings from Ségo see here, here, and here.
PFFT (What is this?): The making of the Ségo prophecy 3½ | Foirade 3 | Rayonnement français 0
Andorra Has A New Coprince!*:
5 jours d'après - tour 2
PRESIDENT SARKO
All Official-like
SARKOZY PROCLAMÉ OFFICIELLEMENT PRÉSIDENT DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE
10 mai 2007 (Le Monde) - Nicolas Sarkozy a été officiellement proclamé président de la République, jeudi, par le président du Conseil constitutionnel Jean-Louis Debré, qui a annoncé les résultats définitifs de l'élection présidentielle, a constaté un journaliste de l'AFP.Au second tour de scrutin, le 6 mai, M. Sarkozy a recueilli 18.983.138 voix, (53,06%) contre 16.790.440 (46,94%) à Ségolène Royal, a déclaré M. Debré au siège du Conseil, au Palais-Royal à Paris.
"En conséquence, le Conseil constitutionnel proclame M. Nicolas Sarkozy président de la République française", a déclaré M. Debré.
[Nicolas Sarkozy was officially proclaimed president of the Republic, Thursday, by the president of the constitutional Council Jean-Louis Debré, which announced the final results of the presidential election, AFP reports. With the second ballot of May 6, Mr. Sarkozy collected 18,983,138 votes, (53.06%) against 16,790,440 (46.94%) for Ségolène Royal, declared Mr. Debré from the seat of the Council in the Palais Royal in Paris.
"Consequently, the constitutional Council proclaims Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy president of the French Republic", declared Mr. Debré.]
* One of the Republican non-chores of the French president is to assume the trappings of junior royalty as the coprince of the Principat d'Andorra. The French coprince shares equally the burdens of doing nothing with the bishop of Seo de Urgel, Spain.
Republican France has never been so republican as to shed herself of this princely title, with the five republics and Vichy France all contributing coprinces to Andorra. The amazing thing about this arrangement is that despite 715 years of French coroyalty, Andorra today has no income tax.
PFFT (What is this?): France's big dog at 5'5" (1.65 m) 3 | Coprince-itude 3 | Rayonnement français ¾
Remember French Slavery 2007:
Today is Remember French Slavery Day.
CHIRAC ET SARKOZY COMMÉMORENT ENSEMBLE L'ABOLITION DE L'ESCLAVAGE
[CHIRAC AND SARKOZY TOGETHER COMMEMORATE THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY]
PARIS 10 mai 2007 (AFP)
« NOUS DEVONS REGARDER CE PASSE SANS CONCESSION, MAIS AUSSI SANS ROUGIR. »
["WE MUST LOOK AT THIS PAST UNCOMPROMISINGLY, BUT ALSO WITHOUT BLUSHING."]
Jack Instructing On The Remembrance Of Slavery
JARDIN DU LUXEMBOURG 10 mai 2007 (Élysée)
Jack established this commemoration last year for the forgetful French to reflect on the second time France abolished French slavery on April 27, 1848. Jack apparently forgot to set aside a second date for the French to reflect on France's first abolition on February 4, 1794. Once for practice. A second time for show.
To help the French remember that which they barely know, there was to be a nice Web presentation about all this.
Le ministère de la culture et de la communication (Direction des Archives de France, Délégation aux célébrations nationales, Centre historique des archives nationales et Centre des archives d'outre-mer) et le ministère de l'Outre-mer vont réaliser conjointement un site Internet consacré à l'histoire de l'esclavage.Ce nouveau site trouvera naturellement sa place dans le cadre de la collection des publications électroniques consacrée aux célébrations nationales (www.celebrations.culture.fr/).
... Le site est actuellement en cours d'élaboration. Il sera ouvert au public d'ici la fin de l'année 2006.
[The ministry of culture and communication (Administration of the Archives of France, Delegation to national celebrations, historical Center of national archives and Center of overseas archives) and the Outre-mer ministry will jointly produce an Internet site devoted to the history of slavery.
This new site will naturally find its place within the framework of the collection of the electronic publications devoted to the national celebrations (www.celebrations.culture.fr/).
... The site is currently under development. It will be opened to the public by the end of the year 2006.]
Hhmmm, it looks like someone forgot to put up the presentation (dead link lower left corner). While waiting on the government ministries, check out the Comité pour la Mémoire de l'Esclavage for some background.
As is his special gift, Jack has made a little speech for the occasion congratulating France for doing twice what was better done once.
Our seminal posts on French slavery can be found here and here. Last year's French Slave Day posts, here and here.
PFFT (What is this?): Two times a charm 2 | Rayonnement français 2½
Félicitations de Ségolène Royal III:
4 jours d'après - tour 2
VOTE BETTER NEXT TIME, SVP*
Or Else...
ANTI-SARKOZY PROTESTS SUBSIDING, SAYS FRENCH INTERIOR MINISTER
PARIS May 9, 2007 (AFP) - French protesters clashed with police and burned cars for a third night after the victory of president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy but the interior minister [Francois Baroin] said Wednesday that the violence was dying down.Some 200 cars were torched and 80 people arrested overnight, fewer than the 365 vehicles set alight on Monday and the 730 cars ignited on Sunday in the hours following the rightwinger's defeat of the Socialist Segolene Royal.
M. Baroin has underestimated the tenacity of privileged white college-aged youth resisting the injustice of fair elections and the vagaries of adult life thrust upon them.
ANTI-SARKOZY PROTESTS IN PARIS, STUDENTS STRIKE
PARIS May 9, 2007 (WaPo/Reuters) - French police arrested more than 100 demonstrators and hundreds of students went on strike at a Paris university as left-wing protests against president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy continued for a fourth night on Wednesday.Some 300-400 demonstrators gathered on the Boulevard St Michel in the Latin Quarter of Paris, ostensibly to protest against a march by far-right supporters.
Shouting slogans like "Sarko fascist! The people will have your hide!" [ « Sarko, facho ! Le peuple aura ta peau ! » ] and "Police everywhere, justice nowhere!" [ « Police partout, justice nulle part ! » ], the demonstrators were cornered by hundreds of police close to the nearby Luxembourg Gardens.A police officer at the scene said 118 arrests had been made by 9.30 p.m. (1930 GMT).
The left-wing "demonstrators/protestors" riot because police prevent them from spoiling a demonstration by right-wing demonstrators. Ah, justice nulle part !
In a separate demonstration, hundreds of students at a Paris university staged a strike to protest at Sarkozy's plans to reform France's higher education system and blocked access to an annexe of the Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne university.... After a long, heated debate in which anti-Sarkozy militants clashed with other students enraged at action that could threaten their approaching examinations, scores of activists prepared to occupy a lecture theatre overnight.
The tragedy of the left is who can take them seriously. These are not France's neediest calling out for social justice or a simple bowl of soup. These are France's most privileged, most coddled, most infantilized Peter Pans. Their parents' taxes have paid for their privileges. Any takebacks are plainly unfair to maman et papa. Student assistance becomes a subsidy becomes an entitlement, un droit acquis, a fundamental essential of the human person. Without free tuition forever life has no dignity, humanity is diminished, one must find a job.
* See here for bravitude.
PFFT (What is this?): Peter Pan Republic 3 | Rayonnement français 0
Hey! How'm I Doing? VIII:
UPDATE:
FRENCH GIVE CHIRAC THE THUMBS DOWN
PARIS May 10, 2007 (AFP) - France's outgoing President Jacques Chirac's performance during his 12-year tenure was deemed to be "bad" by more than half of his countrymen, according to an opinion poll released Thursday.Fifty-four percent of those surveyed gave him the thumbs down, with 40 percent rating his presidency as "bad" and 14 percent saying it was "very bad," according to a survey conducted by the BVA institute.
Forty-two percent said he had been "good" and a mere two percent said his leadership had been "very good."
Responses of "crappy", "ruinous", and "abysmal" were included in the "good" tally. Propriety precludes our publishing the various responses in the "bad" tally. Please do not ask about "very bad".
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This will be the last monthly tracking poll for Jack as president-for-now of France.
He made no gains on last month's confidence, topping out at 30%, the high of the 15-month period. The imminent prospect of ex-Jack did not elicit the anticipated false love of good riddance from the electorate. [Brightening.] His no confidence number improved to 64%, a 3-point drop from last month. Had Jack only a longer tenure, we are confident that in two or three years' time that number would have plummeted to 62%, 60%, or possibly 59%. [Dreamy sigh.] Into the high 50s of no confidence, what a legacy that would have been.
QUESTION:
"Do you have confidence, some confidence, not much confidence, or no confidence in Jack Chirac to solve the problems that currently arise in France?"
ALL THE LOVE THEY HAVE
At Least They're Honest
FRANCE'S CHIRAC LEAVES WITH LOW NUMBERS
May 10, 2007 (Angus Reid) - In the final days of his mandate, the leadership capabilities of French president Jacques Chirac are trusted by few, according to a poll by TNS-Sofres published in Le Figaro. 64 per cent of respondents have no confidence in Chirac’s ability to face the country’s problems.
As this series of posts concludes, re-live Jack's plodding to nowhere here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
PFFT (What is this?): Foirade 4¾ | Rayonnement français 0
What Now? II:
3 jours d'après - tour 2
Following Sarko's win, bright headlines abound:
EUROPE, TAXES, STRIKES: SARKOZY TO TACKLE ALL IN FIRST 100 DAYS
PARIS May 6, 2007 (AFP)
EU CONFIDENT SARKOZY WILL HELP RESOLVE INSTITUTIONAL IMPASSE
BRUSSELS May 6, 2007 (AFP)
SARKOZY VICTORY, A TURNING-POINT FOR FRANCE
PARIS May 7, 2007 (AFP)
Why, it's all as good as done. If you believe headlines.
But in truth how doable is any of this?
Michel Gurfinkel, Executive Chairman of the Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau, writing in the WSJ (CAN SARKOZY SAVE FRANCE?) gives a detailed and scathing history leading to the current state of France. Crucial to Sarko's "rupture" is the reform of the French civil service, which is not simply an outsized bureaucracy, but a government onto itself. In many respects, the French civil service is the government of France.
This same French civil service, the thing to be reformed, will be in charge of implementing reforms that diminish its scope, its powers, its personnel, its benefices. No surprise, M. Gurfinkel is sceptical.
The 1958 constitution was drafted by Michel Debré, a fervent Gaullist who had also been the main architect of the ENA [Ecole nationale d'administration]. No French constitution since the Second Empire so drastically enhanced the executive branch or downgraded the legislature. Even more pertinent, however, was its preferential treatment of civil servants and enarchs over elected politicians.... What gave the civil servants even more absolute power was their control of the economy. Ever since 1936, many large companies had been gradually nationalized, from banks and insurance companies to railways and airlines, from mining companies to the steel industry, from radio, TV and media agencies to aviation and cars. The post-1958 Fifth Republic went much farther, embarking on large-scale industrial schemes that blurred most distinctions between state-run and private companies. The latter became so dependent on government contracts as to behave like de facto divisions of the former. Some government contracts were also tailored to help favored private companies against their competitors. As enarchs managed the state sector, other enarchs--or the same ones--would be "lent" to private companies in a practice known as pantouflage ("slippering").
... The more absolute their power, the more the enarchs have tended to run France in their own interest, while assuaging the citizenry with bribes of all sorts. One such bribe, rhetorical but no less effective for that, has taken the form of nationalistic posturing, usually directed against the United States; a favorite slogan of the enarchs is that France's mission is to uphold and protect a superior continental civilization based on the welfare state against the Anglo-Saxon model of "predatory" free-market capitalism.
... So what chance, really, is there for a change in 2007? ... Mr. Sarkozy, openly pro-American and a (cautious) critic of the welfare state, was probably the only candidate to have given serious thought to France's necrotic condition, hinting at various constitutional reforms--from the abolition of the prime minister's office to a stronger parliament and stronger parliamentary commissions, not to mention progressive cuts in the civil service--that would bring the republic closer to the American political model.
... But now that a reform-minded president has been elected, who will assist him in carrying out his declared program, when enarchs and other state servants are all there is?
Worth the full read.
It is well to remember that back in 1995 Jack was France's brave reformer. His reforms failed after which he gave up on reforms altogether and lost interest in being president of France. Instead he busied himself turning the Élysée into a branch office of the UN.
PFFT (What is this?): Reforms (high-percentage play) 1¼| Reforms (low-percentage play) 3¾ | Rayonnement français 0
