FRANCE'S NOWHERE MAN
Living In A Nowhere Land
We come full circle with our own take on Jack's valediction last Sunday.
Politics can be surprising. However, those who entertained the notion -- Jack among them -- of a Jack candidacy and, more fabulous still, a Jack win, well, politics, while surprising, are not miraculous.
By many accounts, Jack is the consummate politician, which is to say he is driven, tactical, petty, self-serving, and ruthless. What he isn't is a leader. In over 40 years of Borgia political manoeuvres he has led France nowhere.
In May 2002 Jack was shoved back into office with 82%* of the vote. His approval stood at 52%. In June of 2005 his approval numbers sank into the 20s and remain there to this day.
* A happenstance of the twice-past-the-post French electoral system.
We will not here recap Jack's career (we have something planned for that elsewhere), instead we'll confine ourselves to last Sunday's speech (here in English). And what an amazing speech it was! Here for example is Jack's highlight reel.
I would, of course, have liked to have done more to overcome resistance to change and self-centred aspirations in order to address more quickly the difficulties some of you are experiencing. But I'm proud of the work we have accomplished together. Proud to have restored with you essential Republican values, such as the secular principle. Proud to have carried out some important reforms to safeguard our pensions and provide better help to the dependent elderly and the disabled. Proud to have relentlessly fought insecurity and reduced crime. Proud to see French women and men embarked on the paths of innovation and of the future. Proud, above all, to have shown that there was no inevitability about unemployment. Even though we have to go far further, unemployment is the lowest it's been for a quarter of a century. France is holding her own. She is affirming her place in the world.
An amazing speech. Not one claim is without serious -- and damning -- challenge (exampled in our links).
All this is thanks to you, thanks to your talent, thanks to your creativity. Thanks too, and I don't underestimate this, to the considerable efforts you have agreed to.
This is not thanks. This is Jack making every Frenchie complicit in his nonaccomplishments. Jack then springs the big news -- he will not seek a third term! [Pause. We dab away nonexistent tears.] This would have been a good place to stop, but Jack went on, gumming up his speech with special Jack messages.
The first message is for Frenchies to say "no" to extremism, which is the innocuous catch-all for French racism, anti-Semitism, and historic swings between fascism and mobbism.
In our history, extremism has already almost led us to the abyss. It's a poison. It divides. It perverts, it destroys. Everything in France's soul says "no" to extremism. France's real battle, France's noble battle, is for unity, for cohesion. Yes, our values mean something!
"Everything in France's soul says 'no' to extremism." Jack's lead-in confutes this claim before it is made. We are left guessing what French values mean, but we'd be more impressed were Jack to present a few in evidence.
The second message exhorts Frenchies to believe in themselves and France and not be afraid to be French.
We must not fear global change. We must tackle this new world head on. We must go on putting our stamp on it. And do so without ever surrendering our French model. This model is right for us. And, above all, it is extremely well tailored to today's world, provided of course we find the way to keep on modernizing it.
What is this "French model"? There is not a French politician, cabbie, or €2 hooker who will not advocate, praise, and defend the fabled French model. But is there anyone in France who can clearly describe what this model is? Was the never-surrender French model under M. Mitterand the same never-surrender French model under Jack? To those of us outside of France looking in, the French model is no model at all. It is only the French going about their business as fascists, communists, socialists, or capitalists, depending on the current national mood.
Jack then comes to Europe. And here he must diminish sexy France to improve dowdy Europa. Ouch!
In the referendum, you expressed your doubts, your concerns and your expectations. It's vital to go on building Europe. The nationalism which has caused our continent so much harm can re-emerge at any time. And alone we shall not be able to withstand the global economic upheavals. France must assert the imperative of Europe as a world power. Of a political Europe. Of a Europe guaranteeing our social model. Our future is at stake. Let's always promote this ideal and this determination.We can only hope that the other EU polities have read the above so they have some idea of how they are to serve French purposes.
Jack then hits on that special "Frenchness" that informs French pieties.
My fourth message is that France isn't a country like others. She has special responsibilities, inherited from her history and the universal values she has helped forge. Consequently, faced with the risk of a clash of civilizations, faced with the rise of religious and other forms of extremism, France must champion tolerance, dialogue and respect between people and between cultures. At stake are peace and the world's security.
Jack enjoys being the French president and he enjoys the trappings of the French presidency, but he has never shown much interest in governing France. No, Jack is all about saving the world. It is one of those special French responsibilities he feels called to tend.
Similarly, it would be immoral and dangerous to let unbridled free trade widen the gap between an increasingly rich part of the world and billions of men, women and children abandoned to poverty and despair. France's duty is to exert all her influence to get the global economy to take on board the necessity of development for all.
Yet it is Jack who openly advocates for keeping France rich and Africa poor by preserving French advantages in EU agricultural markets. And it is France that actively and openly campaigns against the inclusion of poor Turkey in the rich EU.
But Jack is not done. France has a finger in all the popular causes.
Finally, there's the ecological revolution which is beginning. If we don't succeed in reconciling mankind's need for growth with the suffering of a planet running out of resources, we are courting disaster. We need a revolution in our minds as much as we need one at world level. To design a new type of relationship with nature and invent another form of growth. With her research, her businesses, her agriculture, the lead she has taken in nuclear power and the resolute choices she has made in renewable energies, France has all the assets to take up this major challenge of the twenty-first century.
End of didactic transmission. Jack closes by blowing kisses and announcing that France "has not finished astonishing the world."
France may indeed continue astonishing us (and here and here, in their different ways), though Pave finds an unastonishing France more congenial, more fitted to a placid world.
All in all, a feeble 10-minute end to a 40+-year political career. Bad for business here at Pave, but a welcome end nonetheless.
PFFT (What is this?): Amazing speech 4 | Rayonnement français 0
