French Twist

The French political world in chaos.  While conservative presidential candidate François Fillon is dealing with charges that he gave his wife a sham job to pay her a generous salary, France's former conservative president, Nicolas Sarkozy, is going to be tried for the charges of illegally financing his failed 2012 campaign for re-election and surpassing the legal campaign-spending limit in France (yes, the French have campaign-spending limits, unlike These States).  Sarkozy is alleged to have attempted to hide the excess spending - $20 million, according to one source - by having a public relations firm bill the party instead of the campaign. 

And to think . . . all that spending, and he didn't even win.

The Socialists in France, after five years of President François Hollande, have been discredited by mismanaging the economy.  François Fillon looked to be the next president for his impeccable credentials and his clean image, now sullied by his own scandal.  He vigorously defended himself earlier this week in an attempt to salvage his own campaign in advance of the spring presidential election, but if the French press is anything like the American press, he's not going to convince anyone of his innocence that easily.  

It seems to me that the conservative party in France - called the Republicans, by the way - is in danger of forfeiting its moral leadership in a country looking for a president with strong principles, which could add to the already unraveling political situation there . . . in favor of National Front presidential candidate Marine Le Pen.  A Le Pen victory in the presidential election would be an even bigger earthquake than Trump's election to the U.S. Presidency, because it would call France's reputation for equality and fraternity and for upholding the values of European republicanism completely into question.

Not that the center-right haven't done a good job in doing much of that already . . ..           

Where's the Process?

President Obama spoke at the United Nations yesterday trying to shore up his bona fides as a peacemaker and as strong ally of Israel.  He expressed his support for a Palestinian state but advocated against United Nations recognition of an independent Palestine, explaining that peace cannot be forced, and that it can only be negotiated.  Theoretically, Obama shored up his support from Jewish voters for 2012 in electorally important states such as New York and Florida.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy - who is also up for re-election in 2012, seemed to take a more focused and sharpened approach.  He advocated admitting the Palestinian Authority in a lesser form of U.N. membership - observer state status, to be precise - but suggested that the Israelis and the Palestinians give themselves a year to work something out.  That plan may suggest a forced peace, but it also encourages both sides to work toward a solution that has been elusive for far too long.  By contrast, Obama seemed to be abdicating any serious role in pursuing an agreement.   

So did President Obama at least placate the world body? Maybe, but only temporarily under the best circumstances.  Did he help shore up his voter base in, say, Florida? Given today's 391-point drop in the stock market that wiped out a lot of investments from retirees, he's going to have to do a lot more than just provide assurances to Israel to win the Sunshine State next year. 

And no matter what happens to the American economy, the Palestinians aren't likely to get their state soon.

French Kissoffs

France is currently struggling with how to adapt to the twenty-first century, a century of greater diversity and diminishing returns. As I opined on this blog in 2005, American liberals have long regarded France as an earthly paradise for both its cultural and intellectual life, as evidenced by the many Americans (not me, alas) who have traveled to Paris for inspiration. Jim Morrison was one, of course, as were Ernest Hemingway and many of his contemporaries. How far back do I have to go? Thomas Jefferson absorbed France's cultural influence as the American minister to that country. But two other qualities many American liberals have longingly admired about France are its commitment to liberty, equality and fraternity and its generous social services. And the commitment in France to both have taken rather interesting turns of late.

Yesterday the French Senate overwhelmingly voted to ban Islamic women from wearing burqas, clothes that completely cover their features, in public. Many liberals in the United States have assailed the vote as being bigoted toward followers of a specific religion - in this case, Islam - and that this should be seen as unacceptable in France as burning Korans is here. Some feminists have even opposed the new French law, suggesting that a religion having women cover themselves is really no worse than a consumer culture bombarding them with images of idealized beauty to dictate to them what they should look like.

One can sympathize with the French as they strive to create a society that values secular public life even as it protects private religious freedom. After all, the French government isn't asking Muslim women to start dolling themselves up to look like Emmanuelle Béart or anything like that. But it seems contradictory to tell them they have freedom of religion and then tell them to go against it by adopting government-approved dress code. Some French Muslim women who hate the burqa will no doubt rejoice over this law, while many of them will regard it as an attack on their identity.

Meanwhile, the National Assembly, the lower house of the French Parliament, took to attacking the retirement pension issue, voting to raise the retirement age in France from 60 to 62. Most pensioners are against the proposal, but the government deems it necessary to raise the retirement age - which would still be lower than it is in the United States - to keep the pension fund from going under. President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to preserve it for future generations.

As France tries to redefine itself for the present and beyond, it has taken one step ahead of America and one step behind it. It may be bad enough that Americans have fewer social programs than the French, but we can't even figure out how to preserve the entitlements we have, such as Social Security and Medicare - even as the Tea Partiers suggest abolishing them altogether. The French are at least looking to do the right thing, no matter how unpopular it may be, to keep their social welfare system going in perpetuity. Paradoxically, French distrust of Islam - based on a fear of religion bred from the days of an official alliance of church and state from the days of the monarchy - reveals the discomfort the French feel in deciding what religious expression should be allowed. We Americans, who have never had an official religion, have allowed religious freedom to flourish, the result being that Americans enjoy more religious liberty than anyone else. We would never pass laws banning burqas in public. Not even Koran-burning can change that.

Obama Abroad

So how can you call Barack Obama's first trip to Europe as President of the United States a success when he didn't accomplish much?

Well, for one thing, he actually made it to Europe. And he impressed the British, the French, and the Germans alike with his charm, his self-deprecation, his articulate manner, and his willingness to listen. Obama wanted the Europeans to spend more to stimulate their economies. They don't want to do that so much. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel wanted more international banking regulations. President Obama wanted more regulations, but not on a global framework. But at the G-20 summit, Obama did set a tone for ongoing negotiations and good-faith efforts at reviving the global economy that should bear more fruit later, just not now. So, as the President himself insisted, he did okay.

And thanks to him, the Queen of England has a new IPod!

Probably a lot of Sir Edward Elgar on it . . .

(The best sideshow involving First Lady Michelle Obama was not her meeting with Her Majesty, both rather her meeting with her French counterpart, Carla Bruni Sarkozy. A picture of the meeting shows that they were clearly sizing each other up! :-D)