The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has announced yesterday that he may run for the office of the president once again in 2017. Given the dismal state of the French economy and the highest rate of unemployment ever seen in France, Mr Sarkozy feels it is his duty to return to office to ‘save the day’, so to speak. As if the economy suddenly took a turn for the worse after he lost the elections and that his five years in office had nothing to do with it! Furthermore, an influential group of powerful backers wants him back, but during his time in office and after losing the elections, he has been linked to too many scandals.
There are several facets on the political, economic and social levels of the implications of what the election results indicate about public discontentment with Mr Sarkozy and his policies, and what most certainly will be issues if he were to ever return to office.
To begin with, it seems that here was a president who, rather than bring social unity and coherence in a country whose population is one-fifth of different ethnic origin, appeared to create more of an ethnic divide. This is particularly true of the Sarkozy relationship with the Muslim population in France, of whom there are six million and with whom Mr Sarkozy has not only never tried to establish ties but also rather isolated and alienated them. The parliamentary ban on veils and prayers on the street is a potent example.
Granted France is a secular country, but those issues are very far from being what ails France today and what very well may have cost the president his re-election. What is striking here is that with all of France’s profound woes, why these issues even come up in parliamentary discussions. While veils and prayers being held on the street may be an eyesore to some, they pose absolutely no threat or danger to French society.
Could these ploys possibly have been a cover-up, a ‘throwing of dust in the eyes of the public’ so to speak, for much more serious issues? Some fingers have pointed towards Mr Sarkozy for the entire Dominique Strauss-Kahn (also known in France as DSK) fiasco, since polls had indicated that DSK was bound to win the presidential elections next year by far. The fact that the owners of the Hotel Sofitel, in which the fiasco occurred are friends of Mr Sarkozy does not help. There are also the suspicions of DSK himself that some type of foul play was most likely to occur involving him due to his strong chances of winning the elections, a suspicion that he has apparently even confronted the president with. Of course, this can be brushed off as a conspiracy theory and speculation. But there’s more.
Mr Sarkozy’s re-election battle had been seriously overshadowed by a major corruption scandal involving two of his closest friends, who are currently under investigation for allegedly receiving kickbacks on arms sales to Pakistan, an issue more commonly known now as the ‘Karachi affair’. It is worth mentioning that this is the biggest corruption scandal in France since the Second World War. Stories of illegal party funding, suitcases stuffed with banknotes and the killing of 15 people in a bomb attack in Pakistan in 2002, which French judges now believe to be a retaliation attack over unpaid government bribes, are all beginning to crop up and cannot be brushed off as conspiracy theories!
For those who thought that such blatant acts of corruption and money laundering were a unique trademark of Third World countries, this is a tremendous eye-opener, to say the least!
If this is not enough to question the integrity and trustworthiness of one who was the highest official in France, add to it the social and economic problems that the French are faced with today. French voters are concerned about their economic prospects; unemployment remains increasingly high; there is a European debt crisis; a failing Euro; and National Health insurance funds are being reduced increasingly, just to name a few.
To a French voter, it may almost seem surreal to the point at which their concerns had been completely put on the backburner. For the first time also, France had engaged in not one but three wars: the Ivory Coast, Afghanistan and Libya, with French planes attacking Colonel Gaddafi’s troops. Contrary to public support, Mr Sarkozy was the biggest supporter of an increased military action. One cannot help but be reminded of the Bush era during the invasion of Iraq.
Mr Sarkozy was perhaps the most unpopular president in French history. He was at a historical low in opinion polls and some tend to believe that these military, and perhaps social, almost extreme right leaning tendencies are a wrongful sign to demonstrate his patriotism. Added to the Karachi affair have been allegations that Mr Sarkozy had received more than 50 million Euros from the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2006-2007. He has also been linked with receiving illegal political payments from France’s wealthiest woman, Liliane Bettencourt, the L’Oreal heiress. Furthermore, it has been said that Mr Sarkozy had used taxpayers’ money to campaign before even officially entering the election race in 2012. The list just goes on.
Surprisingly, Mr Sarkozy still walks free and even hopes to be re-elected as president. One has to wonder…is the concept of accountability a novelty in French politics?
The writer is an English and French professor and columnist residing in the USA and France. She can be reached at [email protected]