AdmiNet Europe
May 02, 2007 01:02 pm |
Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sárközy de Nagy-Bocsa’s father is Hungarian and his mother had a Greek (Jewish) father, making him a personification of the EU’s essence, which is the free movement of people, as well as goods, capital and services.
Yet, as often with immigrants, Sarko is more Catholic than the Pope.
He believes in a strong French state and is a loud cheerleader for French industry : rescuing power company Alstom with public money and campaigning on national pride in coalmines he knows well are past, not future.
This appears bad news as regards France’s number one problem of massive unemployment, sustained, in simple terms, because good jobs are so protected that employers are wary of hiring in good times, knowing they can’t fire in bad.
France is the only country in the world where radical students protest in the streets in favor of the status quo.
However, more sophisticated interviews suggest that, beyond the necessities of an election campaign, Sarkozy recognizes the problems.
Riding in on his new generation mandate, he represents the best chance for a Thatcher-like economic shock therapy that made its namesake a deeply divisive and unpopular figure, but laid the foundations of sustained economic success.
Sarkozy’s first official campaign stop was London, where he urged his countryfolk to come home and transform France.
The second thing France needs is a reconciliation with a Europe which was made in its own image, but which has slipped remorselessly beyond its control, the main reason for the 2005 "no" referendum vote.
Europe’s "cult of competition," its ever-increasing use of English and its opening of doors to the new member states (who can forget Chirac calling them "infantile" in 2003), set alongside a bigger, more independent Germany, have led to a deep estrangement.
Europe is not a big issue in the French elections, but Sarkozy has a bold vision that would fit neatly into a powerful Brown-Sarkozy-Merkel-Barroso liberal axis.
He had an early try on the constitution question (the mini-Treaty) and was the first to point the way to parliamentary ratification, now being echoed by Blair and others.
Stronger president
He wants a stronger Commission President, an EU tax, an "avant-garde" of Member States and "super-QMV," which would take a paragraph to explain but means "countries which do not want to go forward should not be allowed to hold others back."
More radical still, he wants finality to Europe’s borders - excluding Turkey.
As much as it needs Europe, the EU needs an engaged France.
If it means a return to the fold, Sarkozy will get whatever he reasonably wants at first.
Thus, at least as regards Europe, French policy for the next few years may be cast in Sarkozy’s first few weeks. Exciting times beckon.
As new europe’s author is nestled deep in the heart of Old Europe, and stalks corridors of wealth and power, his identity is being kept anonymous.