France. Sarkozy versus Chirac

Can a new France emerge from the old?

WHEN Jacques Chirac was first elected to parliament, Lyndon Johnson was in the White House, George Bush was at Yale, and Tony Blair was 13 years old. After 37 years in politics, nearly ten as president, Mr Chirac has come to personify France. Abroad, his anti-war stance over Iraq typified an independent foreign policy, inspired by Gaullism and spiced with a dash of anti-Americanism. At home, his record after nearly a decade in office hardly bears the mark of reformist resolve. If there is a French exception, Mr Chirac is its embodiment.

Yet, despite the long shadow that the septuagenarian casts over his country's politics, Mr Chirac's is not the only France. A younger generation is challenging his old France. On November 28th, one representative - Nicolas Sarkozy - takes over Mr Chirac's ruling party, the Union for a Popular Movement. Mr Sarkozy's political mission is to refresh the party for the 2007 presidential election. But his personal mission is to prepare himself as a candidate. Since Mr Chirac might also stand again, undeclared warfare is promised. At stake is a choice between the old France and the new.

The creed of French exceptionalism asserts that there is a way of running affairs - a heavy state, high taxes, trammelled markets, an independent foreign policy - which differs distinctly from the liberal, market-driven Anglo-American model. In the past, France's dirigisme has served it well. High-speed trains, nuclear energy, the aerospace industry, good state schools: all testify to this. The French economy, with many first-rate global companies, is the world's fifth-biggest.

Yet the model is showing its limits. Even during buoyant economic growth, unemployment remains high (8-10%). A shortened working week has freed up leisure time, but frozen earnings and stifled job creation. France has trouble accommodating its young Muslim population. Demographic pressures threaten to burden the next generation with heavy costs. Worse, the model now brakes - not boosts - economic growth.

Mr Chirac has shown no inclination to give the underlying model a rethink. He has not cut taxes much, nor streamlined the bureaucracy, nor shaken up the labour market. Indeed, his prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, says that, after implementing (modest) reforms of state pensions and health-insurance, the hard part is now over. Abroad, Mr Chirac continues to tout his vision of a multi-polar world, in which European power balances America's, in ways that seem confrontational, rather than constructive. This may shore up his credibility with the electorate. But it also disguises a more general dissatisfaction, both with his government and him.

New face, new ideas, old problems

Would the man who yearns to inherit the Chirac crown prove any better? While he presents himself as a moderniser, Mr Sarkozy is not without flaws, not least of them his relentless self-promotion. He supports an overly strong industrial policy. As finance minister, he failed to make deep cuts in spending. Could he face down the unions? Could he resist the political clientelism that has characterised Mr Chirac's reign?

Yet Mr Sarkozy brings fresh ideas. He is as close to a liberal as is possible in a country where Communists are considered part of the centre-left mainstream. He does not shy from subjects avoided in polite (secular) society: the place of religion, the compatibility of Islam with western democracy, the erosion of the work culture, the perils of the wealth tax. He has an uncomplicated approach to America, in favour of restoring warmer relations and ending unnecessary hostility.

Mr Sarkozy's ascent comes at a fluid time in French politics. A split is opening up on the left as well as the right. On December 1st, the Socialist Party votes on whether to back Laurent Fabius, its number two, in rejecting the European Constitution in next year's referendum. If it does, this could tear the left in two - and even lead to France voting no to the constitution. Mr Fabius has tapped into an uncomfortable popular sentiment that an enlarged Europe is drifting out of France's grasp.

In short, this is a time of introspection, about France, and its influence in the world. Mr Sarkozy does not have all the answers, and some of his answers are wrong. But he is stirring a welcome debate about how a New France might look.

Editorial asks whether a new France will emerge from the old, as Nicolas Sarkozy takes over as leader of the Union for a Popular Movement, and likely to stand as a Presidential candidate in 2007?

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