France

The first round of the French Presidential elections on April 22nd saw, predictably, Socialist François Hollande and incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy achieve the most votes, and thus enter the second round run-off. But the headlines were dominated by the third-placed candidate, the Front National’s Marine Le Pen, who won 17.9% of the vote. This is the highest vote ever achieved by a candidate of the far-right party, even higher than that polled by her father, Jean-Marie, when he reached the second round against Jacques Chirac in 2002.

She will now be hoping to capitalise on this for France’s parliamentary elections in June, and win seats for the FN in the National Assembly (they currently have none). Her ultimate goal is, as she announced to her supporters on 22nd April, to set the party up as “the only true opposition to an ultra liberal and libertarian left wing”. [1]

One reason, perhaps, for her success is that since taking over from her father as party leader in 2011, Marine Le Pen has attempted to modernise and improve the Front’s image. While maintaining an anti-immigration stance - which she has described as a “tsunami”- she has rid the party of its more outspokenly racist, anti-semitic element. Certainly commentators noticed some changes in the FN vote demographic - more young people, and more women, are voting for the party than previously. [2]

But also, Le Pen’s success reflects the worrying trend developing across Europe, with far-right parties having made large gains in recent years in several European countries, including Hungary, Austria, Finland and the Netherlands. While none of these parties currently hold power, they are certainly in a position to influence those that do: Geert Wilders’ anti-Muslim and anti-EU Freedom party recently brought down the Dutch government when it withdrew its support for Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s coalition. [3]

At a time when European nations need to work together, the increasing success of parties which are anti-EU and pro-nationalist is certainly a cause for concern. The intolerance and divisiveness which they preach will not help Europe as it attempts to find a way out of the current crisis.

Image source: European Parliament

It began on 11th March, when Imad Ibn Ziaten, a paratrooper of Moroccan origin, was shot dead when he went to meet someone who he believed was interested in buying his motorbike.

Four days later, a gunman on a scooter shot at three soldiers at a cashpoint in Montauban, near Toulouse. He killed Corporal Abel Chennouf and Private Mohamed Legouad, both of North African origin, and seriously injured Corporal Loic Liber from Guadaloupe. But the event that focused the eyes of the world on the Midi-Pyrenees, that caused shockwaves to reverberate across France, Europe and beyond, occurred on 19th March. The gunman, once again on a scooter, opened fire outside a Jewish school in Toulouse, killing Rabbi Jonathan Sandler and his two sons, Gabriel, 3, and Aryeh, 6, and the daughter of the headteacher, Miriam Monsonego, 7. President Nicolas Sarkozy hurried to the scene, and all presidential candidates suspended campaigning as police confirmed that they believed all shootings to have been carried out by the same perpetrator. Speculation immediately began as to the motives of the killer, with many suspecting a right-wing extremist to be responsible.

They were soon proved wrong, however. On 21st March, an armed response unit surrounded the Toulouse flat of 23-year-old Mohammed Merah. A 23-year-old French Muslim, born and raised in France to parents of Algerian origin, he had telephoned French news agency France 24 just 2 hours before the siege began, confessing to the attacks and claiming to be a member of Al Qaeda. He said the attacks were a protest against France’s ban on the burqa, and the French military presence in Afghanistan. When asked why he had attacked a Jewish school, he responded, “The Jews kill our brothers and sisters in Palestine”.

The siege lasted 32 hours, ending with Merah being shot and killed by a sniper. But as the pain and grief continue for the families and friends of those he murdered, so do the questions about his motives. What turned a petty criminal into a radical jihadist who was willing to murder seven innocent people, including three children? Was he, as some have claimed, a “lone wolf”, mentally ill and thus not representative of a wider problem? Yet others have pointed out that he bore the hallmarks of a trained and motivated operative.

Whatever the insane reasoning behind these fatal actions, the repercussions are already evident, especially for some of France’s minority groups. Despite Sarkozy’s statement that “our Muslim counterparts have nothing to do with the crazy motivations of a terrorist", French Muslims fear stigmatism and an increase in islamophobia as a result of the attacks. Meanwhile, the attack on the Jewish school also brought the issue of anti-semitism back into focus, with various other anti-semitic incidents being reported in the days following the shootings. A 12-year-old Jewish boy was assaulted in Paris by youths chanting anti-semitic slogans, Jewish graves in Nice were vandalised and, shockingly, the school at which the murders took place received threatening emails.

As the election draws ever nearer, these are certainly testing times for France. Not only is there the fear that there may be more Mohammed Merahs in their midst, ready to commit murder arbitrarily, but his actions have provoked tensions within society that may not be so easy to resolve.

Image source: go dutch baby on flickr

There was further bad news for the beleaguered eurozone on 13th January when 9 of its countries saw their credit rating downgraded by top ratings agency Standard & Poor’s, causing the Euro to fall to a 17-month low. Spain and Italy dropped by two points, putting the latter at the same rating as Kazakhstan, Austria lost its top rating, and Cyprus and Portugal were downgraded to “junk” status, which means that debts are unlikely to be paid in full. Of the Eurozone nations, stable outlooks were predicted for only Germany and Slovakia. But the big news, of course, was that the second largest economy in Europe, France, lost its top AAA rating.

“It’s not good news, but it’s not a catastrophe,” claimed French Finance Minister François Baroin. But it’s certainly something of a disaster for Nicolas Sarkozy, with a presidential election looming and him lagging behind Socialist candidate François Hollande in the polls. Also, rather embarrassingly, he had stressed in the past how important the AAA rating was to France. Sarkozy is also probably somewhat aggrieved that Britain, who’s recent veto of financial treaty changes so infuriated him, for now keeps its top rating.

This news shows European leaders that they still have much work to do. The agency stated that it views measures taken so far to combat the crisis as insufficient, and that that they demonstrate “only a partial recognition of the source of the crisis”.

Image: Flickr/by Mattingham http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattin...

This was the reaction of controversial French MEP Jean Marie Le Pen to news that MEPs from several parties are moving to block him from chairing the European Parliament immediately following the June elections. It is customary that following elections, the oldest MEP chairs the Parliament until a new president is elected. Among his more controversial statements are remarks that Nazi gas chambers are a mere ‘detail of history.’ Le Pen was fined for making said claim in 1987, but repeated the remark again, prompting Socialist leader Martin Schulz to express concern over the prospect of a ‘Holocaust denier’ presiding over the inaugural session of European Parliament. The Green Party has suggested changing the tradition to allow the youngest MEP to open the session, as ‘a sign of the future.’ ALDE leader Graham Watson disagreed with his EP colleagues (admittedly before Le Pen repeated his gas chamber comment), seeing no justification to handle Le Pen differently, ‘even if we hate his politics.’

Image: www.flickr.com/neno

Up to 3 million people take to the streets in France, protesting the government’s handling of thee economic crisis. Strikes across the country have forced the closure of schools and disruption of public transport. Unions are demanding an increased minimum wage, the removal of a 50% cap on income tax, the suspension of public sector job cuts, and further measures to protect employment. In the financial crisis French president Nicolas Sarkozy loses more and more his initial popular support.

Image: www.flickr.com/ nangeli

French carmaker Renault announced this week that they would move production from Slovenia back to France, in an effort to create more jobs for French workers. The move has been sharply criticized as protectionist in nature, and is considered a huge blow to European solidarity. The Commission has already pledged to investigate the legality of such a move.

Image:www.flickr.com/ superciliousness

Such words spoken by Nicolas Sarkozy to UMP deputies led to collective protest in Ireland, less than a week before the Union’s President’s visit to the country. The majority of heads of state and governments seem to agree on the following tactic: bank on the isolation of the Irish to lead them to vote a second time on a text which would have been amended in the meantime – 23 out of 27 member states have ratified the Treaty and paths towards lighly modifying the Treaty are being thought of: the return to one Commissioner per member state, abortion protocols, neutrality and fiscal policy. This is however a contentious strategy to be handled with tact – something M.Sarkozy seemingly lacks. Straight after the President’s speech, the leaders of the “no” campaign expressed their offence towards Europe’s disregard for democratic rules, (i.e. not acknowledging the results of the referendum held on 12 June) and towards the “two weights two measures” policy (in 2005, nobody thought of making the French or the Dutch vote again). European leaders are treading on eggshells in Ireland and nothing seems to indicate that their current strategy is a winning one.

Nicolas Sarkozy is on his way to Ireland. On 11 July the hyperactive French President will land in Dublin on his first visit to a EU member country after taking over the rotating Presidency of the Union. The agenda of the meeting consists of one issue. Mr. Sarkozy is to discuss the Irish no to the Lisbon-treaty with his Irish colleague, Prime Minister Brian Cowen. One can, however, not help fearing that Mr. Sarkozy in his usual style will accidentally let a word or two slip on the Irish situation and make a politically complicated situation even more delicate.

France is taking over the presidency. That is not necessarily bad news, but in the current situation it could easily be. Historically, France has not exactly excelled in the difficult discipline of diplomacy and the search of common ground and consensus and that is what the EU needs today. The priorities of the French are set to be defence, a Mediterranean union and climate change. Ad to that the difficulties caused by the Irish no as the cherry on top and you have the recipe for six months that will not pass by quietly. The French focus on defence-policy is especially interesting at a time when the Irish could be on their way to a second referendum and when a key argument for voting no on 12 June, was the fear of loosing neutrality in matters of defence.

Keep track of the French presidency - as the French see it. The site has news, interviews, speeches, policy-papers and everything imaginable to stay updated. There even is a French presidency tv channel. Enjoy right here.

The soap opera staging the French institutional reform and the Turkish bid to become member of the EU continues. A couple of years back, Jacques Chirac approved a law making it mandatory for every new enlargement of the EU to be approved by a referendum. This law, which was widely perceived as being anti Turkish needed to be reconsidered as it also would have affected Croatia among other candidates. The Minister of European affairs Mr. Jouyet therefore suggested scrapping the law as part of Sarkozy’s institutional reform. This has angered a number of conservative MPs who therefore devised an amendment taylor–made for Turkey. Only candidate countries with a population representing more than 5% of the EU’s population would have to be approved by referendum (Croatia would then be safe). It looks however that this “clever” proposal will not fly with president Sarkozy and the French Senate who are afraid on the repercussions on Franco-Turkish relations... The battle is not over, join us for the next episode of “No we don’t want too many Muslims in the EU but it has nothing to do with racism…”

Those were the words of Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan when meeting with the European Parliament’s Foreign Committee on Wednesday 28. Mr. Babacan referred especially to “one particular country” leaving nobody in doubt who that someone could be; France. French President Sarkozy has on several occasions declared publicly that Turkey does not belong in the EU. It woluld be hard to say that the French parliament took notice of Mr. Babacan’s words. On Thursday 28 the French lower house voted on a constitutional reform package. The package would change the current rules, introduced by former President Jacque Chirac, that require a referendum on any country’s EU-membership application. According to the new proposal, approved by the lower house, a referendum would still be compulsory if the population of the candidate country surpasses five percent of the EU population. Now who could that be that the French MPs have in mind? Regardless of what one thinks of Turkish EU-membership a referendum on any country is destined to become a nasty business. It is not worthy of a democracy. The French upper house, the Senate, is due to vote on the proposal 10 June and a final decision has to be reached in when the two houses meet in July.

An EU-Mediterranean Union has been a French favourite since President Sarkozy’s election campaign in 2007. Therefore, it is no surprise that when June turns to July and France takes over the Presidency of the European Council, more words will be said on bringing the two sides of the Mediterranean together. On 13 July an EU-Mediterranean summit is to take place in Paris but the outcome seems to be uncertain despite Mr. Sarkozy’s high ambitions. Not all Northern European countries see the relevance of creating a competitor to the already existing Barcelona process and a point of gravity that could draw away the attention of the South European countries away from the EU.

French Government spokesman Luc Chatel’s words wore spoken when the French government approved plans for constitutional reform that would scrap the obligation for France to hold a referendum on future enlargements e.g. on Turkey. The clause was introduced by a Jacque Chirac in a state of panic when opinion polls suggested that Chirac would not cash in his last political victory by ensuring a “Oui” to the Constitution in 2005. The fears of the President was fuelled, among other thing, by French voters’ scepticism towards Turkish EU-membership. It does not take much imagination to predict how rhetorically ugly and alienating such a referendum campaign could become. The reform envisages that an enlargement has to be approved by the French Congress or by referendum with the President in place deciding which procedure to apply. The reform must be approved by the French Congress with a three-fifths majority and a vote on the bill is scheduled for July.

All eyes were on London as the midweek saw the UK’s and France’s top political figures give the political show of the week. Newly wed Carla Bruni-Sarkozy was the cream of the crop as the British press and public for a moment forgot about UK-French discrepancies. Instead, they indulged into worshipping the French first lady in a way that brought memories of a certain late British Princess. Politically, beautiful words were spoken, smiles were exchanged and strong promises were made about turning the Franco-British cooperation into a “entente formidable”.The summit could usher in a fresh start between two countries who’s relationship has been soared by controversies over Iraq, the common agricultural policy and free trade. Or it could be just another way of distracting attention from the domestic problems that both leaders are experiencing these days. We will know soon enough what the “entente formidable” is made of when EU-negotiations on a revision of the common agricultural policy and WTO-bis begin on trade liberalisation.

Yes, politics is complicated. You have a supposedly left-wing Gordon Brown government stressing the importance of trade liberalisation and bringing down borders in the UK. At the same time you have a right-wing government in France led by President Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy, who does not miss out on any opportunity to advocate that good old economic protectionism vis-à-vis the world; a protectionism that Europe has historically and internally mastered to perfection. Speaking in the European Parliament Tuesday, Mr. Sarkozy took on another round of shadow-boxing with Mr. Brown, when he claimed that “if others defend their farmers, why shouldn’t Europe defend its farmers?" Two days later in Bruges, the UK Foreign Secretary punched back stating that “the case against economic protectionism is overwhelming”. One thing is for sure. The political entertainment is guaranteed for years to come.