The End of Austerity in Europe?

Published on Sunday, May 6, 2012 by Foreign Policy in Focus
The End of Austerity in Europe?

by Jeanne Kay


A few months ago, when Occupy movements bloomed across Europe, the absence of any similar uprising in France appeared to be an anomaly in a country infamous for its people's propensity to take the streets. One explanation was that the presidential election was just around the corner, and that after 10 years out of government, the Left was capable of channeling the French people's indignation into electoral gains. Indeed, the election's big surprise was the spectacular surge of Jean-Luc Melenchon's Front de Gauche (Leftist Front), a coalition of parties to the left of the traditional social-democratic PS (Socialist Party). With an Occupy-friendly platform, the Front went from virtual non-existence to a double-digit finish in the election's first round, gathering crowds beyond President Nicolas Sarkozy's wildest dreams throughout the campaign.

The Front de Gauche did not, however, make it to the second round. In France's electoral tradition, voters are enjoined to follow their idealistic convictions in the first round of the election — where this year, 10 different candidates presented platforms with planks ranging from the abolition of the presidency to the conquest of Mars — with the certainty that two weeks later, they will come back to “real-world” politics and choose between the two main parties' pragmatist candidates (and decide whether they would like a little bit more or a little bit less of the welfare state this time around).

This tradition of “voting with the heart” for the first round and “with the head” for the second was partially undermined 10 years ago, when PS candidate Lionel Jospin was overtaken by the National Front's Jean-Marie Le Pen in the first round, prompting a nationwide mobilization to prevent the election of the far-right candidate and resulting in Jacques Chirac's victory with 82 percent of the vote. Under the threat of a recurrence — what could be called “April 21st, 2002 post-traumatic stress syndrome” — many first-round French voters chose to vote for Socialist Party candidate Francois Hollande, despite a general lack of enthusiasm for his lukewarm social-democratic policies and his relatively dull campaign. As a result of what the French call le vote utile (the “useful vote,” as opposed to a vote of true allegiance), Hollande finished ahead in the first round, with 28.6 percent of the vote to Nicolas Sarkozy’s 27.2 percent.

Sarkozy Tacks Right

Sarkozy is the first incumbent president in the history of the Fifth Republic not to come out on top in the first round. This humiliating result was expected, as the president beat records of unpopularity during his presidency, a result of his unpopular policies as much as his vulgar personal style. Marine Le Pen, daughter of Jean-Marie, managed to obtain the third-highest score of the first round, scoring 17.9 percent of the vote on a platform of economic protectionism, Europe-bashing, and anti-immigration policies. While she managed to appeal to a broader electorate by appearing less extreme than her father, the National Front remains an extreme-right party whose core project consists of creating an apartheid-like system in which France would recognize two classes of citizens: French and Non-French. ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/06-2