Since April 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy is the new president of the French republic. In my opinion, his election and the following deputies’ election are a sign of the not-that-all-democratic character of the French institutions.
- The leader of the centrist party (MoDem - democratic movement), Francois Bayrou, collected 18 percent of the votes at the first round of the presidential election. His party, that has now 3 seats on a total of 577 in the French lower house of the parliament, is now struggling in order not to disappear.
- According to the medias, Nicolas Sarkozy won a “crushing victory”. This is not true, unless you consider 46,93 percent of the electors who voted for his opponent, Ségolène Royal, are peanuts. This is a victory, but it could be wise for Sarkozy to take millions of people in consideration.
- The majority of people who voted for the deputies of the lower house of the parliament voted for left-wing parties. However, due to the geographical repartition of the seats, Sarkozy’s right-wing party, the UMP won 345 of the 577 seats. How representative and legitimate can be this parliament ?
The UMP won these elections. Fine. The problem is : how did the UMP win ? Nobody seem to care in France, that one party is trusting the whole power, even if it became less votes !
France needs to change its constitution : its institutions must become more decentralized, more democratic and more representative of its population.
After his election, the new French president claimed he wanted to “handle” and create a “tax shock”, in order to boost the economic growth.
In fact, France will try to pay its tax cuts by making more and more debts. Even in a period when the growth is booming and the employment rate is growing, the French are about to continue to dig the huge hole of debts they are already standing in.
Sarkozy claimed about France’s difficult financial situation : “you will judge me only at the end of my presidency”. This sounds extremely vague and it would be an error not to benefit from the current positive economic situation to refund some money.
France suffers from its huge number of civil servants, though the government promised to divide their number by two in the future. This is fine because the mass of civil-servants in France is a structural problem, but I really hope these cuts will not affect, for instance, hospitals or universities.
On the contrary it is not the role of the state to deliver electricity or to run the trains in the country. Sell companies like the SNCF or EDF could be a good way to raise funds to get rid of some civil servants, not to employ more of them though !
For the French who read these few lines, you will be pleased to know that even though German civil servant are employed for a lifetime, they do not have the right to strike !
On an international level, Sarkozy’s efforts to save the Constitution (or what is left of it) were good. Nonetheless, France’s budget is a hot topic in Europe. French people may think their financial condition is their own problem, but it is not anymore. According to Sarkozy’s prime minister Fillon, France must get one percent more growth this year, so its government will take the right to get rid of its commitment to the reduction of the debt. We now all have the same money and the credibility of the Euro must be guaranteed by all countries of the Euro-zone, including France, which is one of the most important.
I hope Sarkozy will pursue its effort to save the European constitution, but the financial difficulties of the French state are worrying and the president should use the current economic situation to clean up this mess.