A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

I will, perhaps, antagonize certain people by saying that I like the French. Really, I do. I took French lessons from the 6th grade all the way up until graduate school--and enjoyed the experience thoroughly. I visited Paris over a weekend 8 years ago when at a study-abroad program in London. Much too little time to do justice to so fabulous a city but justice I sought to do--walking over as much of the city as I could and seeing as much as I could, walking until the calluses on my feet had calluses, grand-calluses and great-grand-calluses of their own. And it was worth it, given the splendor that I saw. I was enchanted. I remain enchanted. I dearly want to visit again soon--assuming that Jews are not entirely verboten in the city just yet. One hopes that they are not.

So like many Francophiles, I am upset and distressed with the direction French politics have taken and are taking. The French need, in my view, a political savior. An ideal savior would be the lovely Sabine Herold, but I suspect that she will be viewed as being much too young.

I think that Sabine Herold is hot, of course--in addition to being politically brilliant--so youth is no obstacle in my eyes. 

But youth will likely remain an obstacle in French eyes. Which means that those eyes might--and hopefully, will--turn to Nicolas Sarkozy:

When Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California in 2003, all French politicians sneered, except one. For Nicolas Sarkozy, the leader of a center-right Gaullist party and the son of a Hungarian refugee, the rise to power of the Austrian-born Hollywood star was a sure sign of modernity. Commenting soon after Schwarzenegger’s election victory, Sarkozy said, “ [that] someone who’s a foreigner in his country, who has an unpronounceable name and can become governor of the biggest American state—that is not nothing!”

Over the past three years, Sarkozy has become one of France’s most popular politicians by pushing reform, fighting crime, talking straight, and injecting progressive ideas into the ruling center-right party, the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). A politician who often runs against the grain, Sarkozy has challenged his fellow citizens’ views on immigration, social welfare, and tax relief, and told them that, in some cases, France should look abroad for its inspiration to Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Britain and, yes, even President George W. Bush’s America. His emergence has breathed new life into France’s ossified political landscape where the same leaders have been holding sway for decades. And his ultimate ambition couldn’t be more clear: The 50-year-old politician, whose boyish energy and penchant for fidgeting has earned him the nickname “Speedy,” is hoping that French voters will show a California-like openness and make him France’s next president. Indeed, in 2003, he broke with French tradition by openly declaring his presidential ambitions and igniting a feud with his mentor, President Jacques Chirac. When I asked him about his political coming-out in a country where discretion is often preferred to ambition, he threw his arms up in the air: “What can I say? I’m ambitious. It’s true. Should I pretend otherwise?”

Maybe. Such ambition has earned Sarkozy a fair number of detractors. His critics bemoan his arrogance. Some say he is simply a political animal, with no moral center. Others claim his originality is more a matter of tone than substance. There may be some truth to the charges, but pollsters and politicians from all sides acknowledge he has struck a chord with the French people—as his sky-high approval ratings show. When asked in recent polls whether they would like to see Sarkozy play a greater role in politics, 49 percent of the French said yes, which is more support than any other French politician enjoys. “There is clearly a Sarkozy phenomenon,” says his close friend and fellow Gaullist legislator Patrick Balkany. “He has utterly outfashioned all other politicians.” But the political rise of Nicolas Sarkozy may be no passing trend.

That last sentence is especially encouraging. Here is why:

More than any other mainstream politician, Sarkozy is acutely aware that the era of French politics as usual is over, and that an increasing number of frustrated French voters either stay home or vote for extremists on election days. By sprucing up his core conservative agenda with audacious proposals to shake up the ailing French egalitarian model and by conveying them in simple words—a rarity in the somnolent world of French politics—he is creating a modern image. Unlike Chirac and other political leaders who are licking their wounds in the wake of the devastating non vote on the European constitution in late May, Sarkozy, despite campaigning for the “yes,” is positioning himself as a possible last resort against the rise of extremist parties. He has recently returned to the post of interior minister, the position that propelled him to political stardom a couple of years ago. He also retains his job as chief of the UMP and plans to use both positions to bolster his credentials for the 2007 French presidential election. If elected, Sarkozy would be France’s first baby boomer president. His advent would likely mark the end of an era of monarchic-style presidency and the ushering in of a more modest version of the office, one that’s more in tune with the French people and more in harmony with France’s position as a middle-tier power on the world stage.

We would obviously benefit from a closer relationship with France. And to the extent that his wishes would not run up against third-image nation-state interests, Sarkozy would be the ideal person to help on the French side in bringing that closer relationship about:

Even in style and persona, Sarkozy strays off the beaten path of French politics. Short and dark haired, he is the inverse of the tall and balding Chirac. His grave, hoarse voice and steady tone evince a steely determination. Opinion polls show that Sarkozy’s straight talk and pragmatism, as well as his avowed passion for the Tour de France, soccer, and popular artists endear him to the average voter. Unlike most of his peers, Sarkozy is a lawyer by training and did not attend the country’s elite national school of administration whose alumni often struggle to connect with French society.

Traditionalists who decry Sarkozy’s style see deeper danger in his substance: a pro-American free marketer who threatens to undermine not only France’s economic model but also the secular fabric of French society. “I don’t have a reference book in which I will find the solution to all problems,” Sarkozy says. “I try to be pragmatic and efficient. Maybe in that sense I am Anglo-Saxon.”

Although he is careful to stress that he does not see eye-to-eye with President Bush on many issues, he is unabashedly pro-American. “I like America and the Americans a lot and I say it. Do I need help, doctor?” he quips, raising his eyebrows. “Some of my friends tell me not to talk about it so [loudly]. Why? I don’t get it.”

He expressed similar warm feelings in April 2004 when, in an obvious stab at the reviled Chirac, the Bush administration rolled out the red carpet for Sarkozy, who met with Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell during his visit. Of course, he knows the dangers of appearing too close to a U.S. administration that has confirmed many of the worst French fears of what an American superpower could be. Several close associates say that although he supported France’s opposition to the war in Iraq, Sarkozy has privately said that Paris’s use of its veto threat at the U.N. Security Council in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq was a mistake. He has not crossed that line in public, however, out of respect for the president’s primacy in foreign policy and probably because he realizes the decision is one of the most popular Chirac has taken in years.

But, in many other ways, Sarkozy is taking a page out of the American playbook. To remedy France’s tepid growth, he has proposed lower taxes and a relaxation of the 35-hour workweek. His policy prescriptions, as well as long-standing personal ties to the country’s top CEOs, have earned him the trust of the business community. “He is one of the few French politicians for whom a business success story is not suspect,” says construction magnate Martin Bouygues, who is an old acquaintance.

And the following is just wonderful to read: 

Sarkozy, for example, has openly courted Jewish and Muslim groups and built a strong following in both communities. While interior minister, he led the fight against a surge in anti-Semitic incidents, denouncing them forcefully and ordering swift police action against perpetrators. Similarly, in 2002, Sarkozy played a pivotal role in the creation of a representative body for the country’s disenfranchised Muslim community. He has controversially proposed public financing of mosques and training of imams (to sever their ties to foreign funders) by modifying France’s bedrock 1905 law strictly separating church and state. But his most daring move is undoubtedly his advocacy of a limited but comprehensive set of “positive discrimination” (affirmative action) measures, a major departure in the land of equality. “I think some people accumulate so many handicaps that if the state does not help them, they have no chance of making it,” he explains, sarcastically adding: “So you could end up having colored ministers? Now that is shocking!”

While interior minister, Sarkozy appointed a Muslim as chief administrative official of one of France’s 22 regions, a decision his critics mocked as cosmetic. He told me he intended to prove his commitment to diversity by opening up the overwhelmingly white ranks of the UMP to French citizens of foreign origin. Those actions explain why he may well end up being the first French politician to attract an ethnic vote by luring both Jews and Muslims. Sarkozy rejects any notion that his actions are driven by petty politics or that they represent a threat to the secular and egalitarian French society. He claims he is merely trying to provide innovative answers to France’s glaring failure to integrate and promote the latest generation of mostly African and Arab immigrants.

Be sure to read the whole article. It fills one with hope for France and for our relationship with it.