The primary issue in this election is economic malaise. It has defined the candidates and the election - the French economy's annual growth rate is lowest amongst the OECD nations at 2%, and the youth unemployment rate of 25% exarcebates the pressure from immigrants in its banlieues, or urban slums.
This article to me clearly highlights the failures of the concept of "enlightened" democracy and the bizarre reasoning of the French electorate. Many of the French believe that the government is some sort of bottomless trough; they believe France's public-sector failures and its decreased global stature are more criticisms of "inefficiency" in government spending rather than structural problems - indeed, the French want the government to spend MORE, addicted as they are to their 35 hour work weeks and long vacations. According to
this article,
there's a French word for the belief, debloquer, the belief that the state "does not make Paul worse off by giving it to Peter" - instead, they "unblock" the pent up money somehow.
There doesn't seem to be any tangible hope of relief in sight; just last year, French protestors took to the streets burning cars in protest of a new law that allowed just temporary, short term workers to be fired more easily. With regards to France's declining competency in the sciences, Mme. Royal in the recent publication of
Nature believes that the system can be targed with "more support" with "rational, optimal use of resources". Hmm. On the other hand, Nicolas Sarkozy, while admitting the need for more labour flexbility, has promised French farmers higher tariffs and believes that while more general adoption of free-market principles must be encouraged, it must be "regulated" and "controlled". Indeed, he espouses "family capitalism" - whatever that is.
I wonder what it's like to be living as a student in France - reading about a once great power becoming more marginalized culturally, through immigration, and economically, through its failure to reinvent itself. It's tragic to me, having loved reading stories of Napoleon and Louis XIV as a kid. It has also really awakened me to the strength the US posseses in its heterogenous nature - the French believe somehow France is an exception, special, and they accept bad economic policies in the name of class solidarity in the language of the revolutionary principles that has made the nation famous. While Paris' lights and Bourdeaux's wines will always be famous, if Sarkozy (and real reform) doesn't win the day, France will likely be a
a very different place in the future.