Although all of his predecessors had been invited, Nicolas Sarkozy was the first French President to come to La Chapelle-en-Vercors, a small town in the Drome, in southeastern France. Last Thursday, he attended a ceremony commemorating the execution by firing squad of sixteen members of the French Resistance by the Waffen SS, on July 25, 1944.The President had originally planned to deliver a speech on agricultural issues, but at the last minute chose to address the question of national identity instead.
A national debate on the issue has been launched by Eric Besson, a mayor of a small town in the Drome, and minister of immigration issues and national identity, who was also present at La Chapelle.
Mr. Besson is one of the French President’s most fervent supporters, even though he is a former official of the Socialist party.
A prominent member of Socialist presidential candidate Ségolène Royale’s campaign in 2007 (during which he had accused Mr. Sarkozy of being an American neoconservative with a French passport) he resigned, convinced that she was not qualified to lead the nation, and supported Mr. Sarkozy instead, a few weeks before the first round of the election in April 2007.
He became a government minister shortly after Mr. Sarkozy’s victory.
The national debate, which began on November 2, is to take place until January 31, 2010. Town hall meetings will be organized throughout the country and all citizens are invited to participate.
Midway through his first term, which ends in May 2012, the President has been weakened politically by the social and economic crisis affecting the global economy.
Though France’s economy has begun growing once again (0.3% for the last quarter, versus 0.4% for the Euro Zone), the unemployment rate remains quite high (9.1%), as factories continue to close, and jobs disappear along with them, albeit at a slower rate (5,550 for the last quarter).
In addition, regional elections are to take place next spring, and Sarkozy clearly needs to mobilize his supporters in this difficult context.
The issue of what it means to be French is one way to accomplish this, for it is a theme that resonates within his moderate and conservative electorate.
Yet, Sarkozy also believes that in the current context of social dislocation and economic mayhem, engendered by globalization, the notion of identity and shared purpose may prove relevant once again, and help revitalize the country.
It is by rediscovering who we are, where we come from and what we are made of that we can rise to the challenges posed by globalization, suggests Sarkozy.
In the age of globalization and connectivity, borders tended to disappear and lose their meaning, we may be experiencing one of these eras where benchmarks disappear and one’s sense of identity fades, and where the idea that something we thought was vital to our existence is disappearing, he said.
The gradual loss of identity, he claims, leads to nationalism, that is to say, that the theme of national identity is confiscated by extremists who substitute love of country with hatred for others.
This is not what national identity is.
On the contrary, it was fashioned by trials and tragedies throughout the centuries. All those who resisted Nazi occupation did so for the same reasons, for France, no matter what their social background was.
How does Sarkozy define France?
France is a land of freedom and equality.
France is a nation of emancipation, where each individual aspires to rise as high as his abilities, virtues and hard work will lead him…
France is a tolerant and respectful nation. But France demands respect in return.
As such, he reiterated his belief that there was no place for the burqa in a country like France.
Yet, these ideals are meaningless if no one believes in them any longer.
That is the heart of the matter: if we no longer have faith in our Republic; if we are no longer convinced that the French system is a meritocratic one, which does reward ability and hard work; if we no longer believe that our educational system is effective and dynamic enough to allow anyone sufficiently motivated to succeed, it is because we have failed the Republic, and given up on its ideals.
Why is it that our Republic, which in the past had been strengthened by its capacity to overcome challenges of all kinds, seems no longer to be able to fulfill its promise the president asked?
The answer is unequivocal, renunciation!
Our ideals have not failed us, but we have failed them!
Our work ethic is moribund; the notion of authority has been debased, the teacher, police officer ignored when not sneered at.
Instead of promoting equality, ensuring all are given an adequate opportunity to succeed, we have enforced egalitarian tenets, that emphatically refuse to differentiate between individuals. Sarkozy argues that we must resurrect our Republic and its ideals of liberté, égalité, fraternité.
It is because we no longer sufficiently cherish our Republic that we have transformed it into a scapegoat for all of our failures, he said.
Sarkozy’s assessment of France is relevant and lucid, but it is now two years old, for it featured prominently in his victorious 2007 campaign.
Two-and-a-half years have now passed, and he, as well as France, has had to weather the economic meltdown born on Wall Street.
How successful has Sarkozy been in this campaign to resurrect France’s republican values?
Has he made any headway, and will he ultimately succeed?
Though he has tried to revitalize the work ethic by gradually abandoning the 35-hour work week; abolished almost all inheritance taxes and limited the top tax bracket to 50% to enable the French to enjoy the fruits of their labor or that of their parents', for instance, his record is uneven in other key areas.
France’s inner cities are still economically deprived and often off-limits to security forces. As a result, the authority, and thus credibility, of the state is openly flouted.
The education system still produces thousands of virtually illiterate individuals each year, who then join the ranks of the jobless as soon as they leave school.
Sarkozy was not expected to solve these problems in two years.
Yet, when you are the President, these acute problems are now yours, and yours to solve. Eloquent speeches will not be sufficient if potent policies do not follow.
Sarkozy is in charge, and his credibility is now at stake.
If he is trying to mobilize the nation and encourage it to overcome its doubts and hesitations about the future, then the speech may have been a useful one.
The discussion he has launched is a noble one, he said.
True enough, but how many are still listening?
Living up to the ideals of the French Republic, liberté, égalité, fraternité is so demanding. Do we, as a people, have sufficient will, discipline and energy to do so?
It is far from obvious that we all even want to make the attempt.
What is dismaying and tedious however is the mockery, derision and contempt that constitute the standard, predictable and thus expected reaction to any statements delivered by Sarkozy.
That Obama in the US receives the same treatment is probably not much of a consolation, but it is a clear sign that the quality of public discourse in modern democracies is too often petty and mediocre.
It is something we simply have to put up with, and is obviously preferable to censorship, but it renders all attempts to change the status quo that much more difficult.
That is not an excuse for complacency and failure and both Sarkozy and Obama should be held accountable for their actions.
After all, they chose to be where they are.
A little constructive criticism would not do anyone any harm, however.
To give but one example of the anti-Sakozy paranoïa prevalent in many quarters here, Marie NDiaye, a writer who recently was awarded France’s most prestigious literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, for her novel Trois femmes puissantes, said in an interview last August that she had left France with her family and moved to Berlin mainly because of Sarkozy.
I find this vulgar and police-state atmosphere, Besson, Hortefeux (Interior Minister), all those people ghastly. I find their France ghastly, she added.
The reaction of the leader of the Socialist party Martine Aubry was far from unexpected.
It was a speech on the part of a president who is in serious trouble, and attempting, clumsily, to regain control of events. What worries the French most is Sarkozy’s unwillingness to let France’s values express themselves, she said.
Should we be so naïve as to consider that Sarkozy’s speech on national identity does not have a political and electoral dimension?
Certainly not, and it was also devised in part to embarrass the Left, which is not comfortable with the subject, and has refused to participate in the nationwide discussion.
Nevertheless, he has raised important issues, most notably the nation’s capacity and ability to renew its model and adapt it to the age of globalization, issues worthy of being discussed in a serious manner.
Alas, it is far from certain that the French are paying attention.
A recent poll revealed that 64% did not consider the question of national identity to be a priority…
(all translations into English are mine, and the photograph above is by Reuters)
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