US Primaries are Fun But the Next President of France Matters More
Denis Macshane argues that the French Presidential election is the important one this year.
27 Jan 2012, 08:30
Will Sarkozy survive?
In 1999 I wrote a memo for Tony Blair entitled “Why George W Bush Will Be the Next President of the United States” and six years previously together with the late Philip Gould helped set up a conference called Clintonomics in January 1993 which showed how a modernised Democratic Party could take on and defeat the American right. John Prescott denounced it as importing dreadful (i.e. election-winning) ideas from the US but Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Peter Mandelson came, spoke, listened and it was one of the birth moments of New Labour.
So like just about every Brit who does, writes or is just interested in politics, the current US primaries are fascinating. But as we obsess on New Hampshire and South Carolina we ignore at our peril an equally important election taking place not 3,000 but 20 miles from our shores. Over ten weeks between April and June, France will elect its president and a new national assembly perhaps with a different colour from whoever occupies the Elysée until 2017.
This election will have far greater impact on Britain than the next occupant of the White House. Exciting as the US presidential race is the constitutional separation of executive and legislature in America mean that like the proverbial oil tanker changing its course is slow and steady.
By contrast if Nicolas Sarkozy is defeated in the first round by a combination of his right-wing challengers including his deadly rival, the former prime minister, Dominque de Villepin, and Marine Le Pen who is painting a more electable face onto the overtly racist and anti-semitic party her father turned into a major vote-winner in France then European politics will change. The election of a socialist Francois Hollande who is opposed to the austerity, deficit-reducing, politics of cuts advocated by the ruling right in Europe will profoundly change the European debate about policy. Hollande electrified France with his campaign opening speech late in January. Yesterday Le Monde headlined its front page “Nicolas Sarkozy and the UMP Gripped by Fear of Defeat.” One of Sarkozy’s ex-ministers who still is close to the President told me last week that Hollande would win and that Sarkozy might not even run.
Yet compared to America there is next to no coverage of the French election and still less of the political turmoil in Germany where the LibDem’s sister party, the Free Democrats are in melt-down, and the German president, put in by Mrs Merkel, may have to stand down after he called up editors and tried to censor news about his financial dealings.
What happens in the US matters to the UK, of course. But what happens in France or Germany matters more. Decisions in Berlin or Paris or changes of policy in Brussels as a result of changes in government and ideology in EU member states have a more direct impact than who wins a primary or control of the Senate. Yet for every thousand words written or broadcast on US primaries, barely one is written to report or explain European politics. Is this healthy in terms of journalism? Is it good for the British people to be kept so ignorant, save for specialists, about what happens in our corner of the world?
Comments (3)
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Macshane, you are absolutely right on this. Yes lets have all the American coverage but why can't we have the same coverage of European politics? The British people are oblivious to the politics and issues on the Continent NOT because British people are ignorant or stupid but because the media completely ignores it. Why is the BBC not providing this coverage when there is a clear need for it? It really is an outrage.
We are only ever educated on the American version of the world and political views. But we belong & are a part of Europe. I'm sure the non coverage of European issues is what contributes the the widespread Eurosceptism, people are not well informed.
27/01/2012 23:22"The election of a socialist Francois Hollande who is opposed to the austerity, deficit-reducing, politics of cuts advocated by the ruling right in Europe will profoundly change the European debate about policy."
Very good. Solving a debt crisis by spending more money you haven't got and increasing your debt levels. Sounds like a plan to me.
29/01/2012 16:28For one thing, I really can't pretend to share this excitement about whether France actually follows the Greek lemming regime off the fiscal cliff. Yes, Brussels wields a depressingly large influence over our lives and laws - but are you really claiming we don't get enough coverage of the EU here? Apart from occasional treaty haggling, it isn't the French or German government that matters to us. Even literally annihilating the French economy would barely register to us: they represent one small part of the tiny part of our own economy which is actually export and import based. Yes, we have far greater (and more favourable) trade with the US than with France: almost an order of magnitude of difference. The fact the French Embassy's own figures are over a decade out of date also tends to suggest this disinterest is not entirely one-sided.
That's the national level, anyway. On a personal level - no, I really don't care any more about France than Uzbekistan or Bangladesh. I've lived part-time in the US in the past, I get part of my news from there now, I have friends there, there's a good chance I'll end up working there. I've never lived in France, nor would I want to. I've visited France a dozen times, speak the language well enough (I was, after all, raised by a languages teacher!) - I just don't have any interest in it. I imagine I'm far from alone in that.
29/01/2012 23:21