The usual suspects

It’s getting towards election time here in France and as an outside observer and long-time watcher of the country; it has been interesting to see what has been going on. One thing really stands out though – it’s the same old faces being repainted and repackaged and wheeled out yet again to the electorate. It’s like musical chairs – the same people just in different positions!

Here’s a quick thumbnail sketch of the political landscape.

The big battle at the moment is between Nicholas Sorkozy on the right and Ségolène Royal on the left for the Socialist party.

Sarkozy – wants to reform France from the roots up and get rid of the 35 hour week, liberalise markets and the labour laws and get the economy moving. Recently quoted on a U.S. trip as saying ‘it should not be a sin if people want to work harder'. Under the prior Socialist government, their solution to unemployment was not to create new jobs or stimulate the economy -just share the existing jobs around. They reasoned that if everyone was limited to 35 hours a week, then employers would have to employ more part and full timers to fill in the shortfall. Talk about the tail wagging the dog not to mention downright inefficient. Work 35-40 hours and you get whacked with tax. Work 40 hours plus and it gets really painful.

Ségolène Royal is, despite being a member of the Socialist party, one of the elite. Well off and educated at the Sorbonne. Also a graduate of E.N.A. (Ecole Nationale d’ Administration) whose graduates are nick-named 'Enarques'. It’s sort of like a Harvard for future business and government leaders - super bright people but ENA is very, very elitist. She’s what we call in Oz a ‘Champagne Socialist – talks a big game about helping ‘all those poor people‘ whilst being ferried from her luxury country retreat to her spiffy inner-city apartment in a chauffeur driven limo. Doing it tough eh Ségey? Having to buy domestic brand caviar instead these days to save a quid or two? Poor devil!

She’s been running despite not getting the backing of the old guard (which has p*ssed them off mightily), but her platform is basically nothing but vague, warm, fuzzy statements like ‘I want everyone to have choices and live the lives that they want to’. Well no sh*t Sherlock! Who doesn’t want that? But how ya gonna do it? Who’s gonna pay for it? What are the details? Nada…One half of her other platform seems to be ’Vote for me – I’m an attractive successful woman’. The other half of the platform is ‘Vote for me because well, I’m not a man’…Cool…

Jacques Chirac – in a similar situation to say second term U.S. Presidents in the last months of their mandates - considered a lame duck just treading water until he finishes. Has been tainted by endless campaign financing scandals going all the way back to when he was Mayor of Paris. Journalists and investigators could never nail him until recently it got so he couldn’t deny it any longer and just said ‘I’m the President - under the law I am immune from prosecution’. Probably followed by a Bart Simpson-esque look that said ‘So eat my shorts!’

The French people are fed up to the back teeth of seeing the same old faces and hearing the same old spin and are desperate for some positive leadership and new ideas, and yet curiously are very concerned about globalisation, market economies, job insecurity etc., and want protecting from change at the same time. This double-edged sword presents a bit of a conundrum for any party!

France has always had loads of very bright, talented and ambitious people. History is full of their scientific discoveries, philosophers and mathematicians. Today, it still has some of the best scientists, artists, designers, manufacturers and business-people in the world.

They just need to get a government that will let go of the park brake that’s been put on the nation…