Sarkozy’s First Speech as an Official Candidate
On Sunday, January 14th, Nicolas Sarkozy, current Interior Minister and head of the conservative party (UMP) was designated as an official candidate by 98,1% of the party’s members who voted (aprox. 70% turn out). He gave his first campaign speech the same day.
Beyond the very lyrical nature of the speech, full of references to French historical leaders ranging from Jean Jaurès and Leon Blum (socialists) to, for sure, De Gaulle, here are some of the more political issues addressed by Sarkozy :
at the center of the French “moral” crisis is the fact that labor and work have been depreciated. People should work more and pay less taxes (at a time where the Socialist Party, if not its official candidate Ségolène Royal, is arguing for more taxes) ;
the role and the scope of the State should be reduced and made more efficient at the same time ;
- we need a real system of checks and balances where a strong and engaged President would be controlled by a strong Parliament. We should get there not by modifying the constitution, but by changing political “behaviors” ;
we need to adopt a simplified European constitutional treaty approved by the Parliament (no new referendum) ;
Europe should have frontiers, and this starts with Turkey not having any special rights to become part of it. We need a real Mediterranean policy which will allow us to find alternatives to enlargement per se ;
and then words about transatlantic relations : France is and will remain committed to friendship with the US, will always tell the truth to America and will know when to say that America is wrong. As a final touch on this specific issue, Sarkozy praised Chirac for his opposition to the war in Iraq, qualified as “a mistake”. It seems Sarkozy changed his mind on the issue between his last trip to the US and this first electoral speech.
To be continued now that both Royal and Sarkozy will cross the country, campaining mainly on domestic issues…
January 15th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
It’s interesting to see that Sarko is proposing that France doesn’t repeat the referendum on the new EU constitution, treaty or whatever it’s going to be called when it comes around again. Is this Ségo’s position as well?
I think he’s certainly got a good point about needing a European neighborhood policy that is more than the lure of possible accession to the EU. How else will the EU be able to project its values in north Africa and the Caucasus?
On work, Sarko seems to be walking hand-in-hand with the British Prime Ministerial heir apparent Gordon Brown.
In this election there’s a lot of talk about ‘rupture’, about breaking with the past. Counter-intuitively, it appears as though while Ségo is playing on being a ‘breath of fresh air’ after the Chirac era, it is Chirac’s heir Sarko that is actually offering the break with the past in policy terms, in particular breaking with the sacred cow of the French social model.
January 16th, 2007 at 9:50 am
Ségolène has not been clear about what should be done with EU’s constitution, but she will have to get out of the woods soon on this. Her slogan is “faire l’Europe par la preuve” : build Europe by the proof. I guess this means Europe should move forward now on concrete policies which actually have an impact on people’s everyday life and re-convince them the EU is part of the solution for more economic growth and well being.
On work : remember Ségolène said something similiar about the need to give meaning and centrality to the values attached to labor and work. She may differ on taxes, but the two candidates have been developing a quite intellectual argument about “let’s put people back to work and make them proud of it”.
Be careful : Sarkozy totally erased the word “rupture” from his vocabulary. 50% of his speech on sunday was about the way he changed, the way he discovered you should lead people to change peacefully, the way he realized he had to be less confrontational, etc, etc..So I would not bet 100% on Sarko being the one who will necessarily break the so-called French social model.
I actually doubt anyone in the current French political spectrum would be daring enough to go this way with all the consequences it would bring along in terms of popularity and public opinion reactions…Someone said : we have the politicians we deserve. We want change but may not be ready to pay for it!