DOOMSDAY?

By: Paul S. Marchand

Summary: the election of Socialist François Hollande to the presidency of the French Republic has already begun to spark apoplexy and fulminant outrage among the American right.  Perhaps, instead of trashing our oldest ally, American conservatives should ask whether the defeat of Nicolas Sarkozy may have something to do with the unsustainability of austerity policies advocated by conservative governments and politicians on both sides of the Atlantic.
Est-ce que le commencement du fin? (Is this the beginning of the end?)

Socialist François Hollande is the President-elect of France.

Actually, the results of today’s presidential election in France are a bit of an anticlimax.  Incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy’s chances of another term had been deflating with the same slow inevitability as air leaking from a punctured tire.

If nothing else, Sarkozy’s defeat seems to signal a growing European disenchantment with conservative austerity policies which have been found insufficient to address the economic challenges facing the continent.  While it is probably too soon to be writing the political obituary of the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition in Britain’s House of Commons, today’s results in France ought to send at least a bit of a shudder through David Cameron and Nick Clegg; Ed Miliband and Labour can probably be excused this afternoon for feeling a bit of satisfaction.

Among American conservatives, long accustomed to regarding France, our oldest ally, as a bête noire, the advent of the first socialist president of France since François Mitterrand was elected in 1981, has called forth a reaction that can charitably be described as apoplectic.  In comment threads, the blogosphere, and social networks, the recurring right wing theme and talking points have been that the election of François Hollande spells Doomsday.

Such domestic conservative reaction (all of which, by the way, seems to be derived from the same set or sets of talking points) tells us more about American politics than it could possibly tell us about the politics of France’s Fifth Republic.  As we ramp up the general election campaign between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, both sides can be expected to project onto foreign elections their own particular domestic spin and agenda.

Indeed, the reaction of the American right to M. Hollande’s election has been not merely angry, but also fulminant and frustrated.  Like M. Sarkozy, Mr. Romney seems to have trouble closing the sale, not only with people in his own party, but also with the independents whose votes he will need to pick up if he is to have any realistic chance of ever being more than an unwelcome visitor at the White House.

Of course, angry right-wing reaction to the coming of a Socialist president to the Elysée Palace will no doubt trigger the same kind of infantile, asinine outbursts that led to “Freedom Fries,” and Freedom Toast,” lest, God forbid, we might have to use the words “France,” or “French.”  Such unseemly bashing of our oldest ally is far easier for American conservatives than facing the daunting question of whether the economic policies advocated by right-wing governments and politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are either sustainable or equitable.

It is far too early to tell what effect the policies the François Hollande administration develops and implements will have on France and on the larger European Union of which she is a part.  But we can expect, however, is that at least for the foreseeable future, American conservatives will have a new enemy against which to rail.





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Paul S. Marchand is an attorney who lives and works in Cathedral City, California.  The views expressed herein are his own, and not necessarily those of any entity or organization with which he is associated, and are not intended, and should not be construed as legal advice.  To this day, notwithstanding his French surname, he still has no idea why the French are so enamored of Jerry Lewis.