Bernard Kouchner - 2 comments

I don't know whether it says more about UK media priorities or French foreign policy that I'd completely forgotten that former Socialist Minister (now expelled from the PS) and Médecins Sans Frontières co-founder, Bernard Kouchner, is Minister for Foreign and European Affairs in Nicholas Sarkozy's UMP administration.

This is especially poor, considering I've recently finished Paul Berman's Power And The Idealists, which covers the lives of left-wing '68-ers Joschka Fischer (the former German Foreign Minister) and Kouchner, amongst others, in some detail, together with the humanitarian/interventionist causes and battles they have been associated with ever since, amid the oscillations of the left in Europe and in the USA. Though Berman is one of those authors with an unimpeachable left/liberal reputation who is frequently derided as a "neocon", it's a great little book, from which I could easily have quoted big chunks of of the later pages.

As for Kouchner, it's encouraging that a left-winger with a humanitarian track-record has the power, and a skin thick enough, to remind people of the danger of an Iranian nuclear programme, and to start to build a consensus that the regime in Tehran must not be allowed - one way or another, whether the UN can be relied upon, or just Europe - to succeed in holding the Middle East, and its own population, hostage with nuclear weapons.

Update (18/09): minor tweaks.
Update (28/09): I notice Soumaya Ghannoushi has stepped in over at CiF. I think it's fair to say that I disagree with her political views more profoundly than I do any mainstream politician in the UK. This is, of course, no coincidence, given her track record as an arrogant and unprincipled apologist for dictators, for Islamism, and against liberal values:

All he [Sarkozy, Kouchner] stands to gain is the dubious honour of being known as Bush's new poodle, and having angry protesters against US foreign policy burn his effigy instead of Blair's.

Give me Sarkozy any day of the week.

French electoral geography - 2 comments

I wasn't expecting to post about this, but a comparison of the 2007 département map, and one from 1974, when Mitterand trailed in second to Giscard d'Estaing, is interesting:

2007:


1974:


OK, the gap in 1974 was 1.62 points, rather than 6.12 in 2007, so we'd expect more pink on the second map, but what's interesting is the geographical shift in support.

Take the North: apart from Pas de Calais, which Royal took by just over 4 points, the Socialists have disappeared. Isn't that supposed to be the industrial heartland? [this thought, via]

The Socialists have also disappeared from the South-east. Gard and Bouches-du-Rhône were won convincingly in 1974, but went to Sarkozy with majorities of 12 and 16 points respectively in 2007. The centre, too, isn't looking too strong (Centre and Bourgogne).

Pyrénées-Atlantiques (far South-west) shows a definite shift to the left, but generally Socialist support seems to have shifted decisively towards Brittany on the western tip.

I'm curious to know what this all means. Though I could probably whip up the relevant maps to prove my point, I suspect that a UK electoral map from the 2005 General Election would probably not differ much from an October 1974 one, if held at arm's length - at least from a red/blue point of view.

Update (08/05): See also: "French electorate splits into two tribes of young and old", via.

Sarkozy - 3 comments

The Wikipedia has full results from the French presidential election, and links to this rather nice map that breaks down the second round results by département.

Dave Osler posts about the possibility of "resistance" to the new president from the left. It's hard to take that seriously. No fewer than 18,983,408 people voted for Sarkozy, nearly 2.2 million more than voted for Royal, which is a pretty clear democratic mandate. The feeling of resignation, and the lack of enthusiasm for Royal that I've felt from French socialist supporters, tells me this is a result that people will - as they should - accept, whatever they individually feel about the policies that will emerge.

Attempts to thwart the democratic mandate will just make the French left look ridiculous, irrelevant, and stiffen the resolve of those in government who want to take on the bastions of left-wing power. I imagine statements like Marie-George Buffet's:

It is necessary to assemble to block the politics that the right is going to set in motion. I make an urgent call for the mobilisation of all the forces of the left to organise a ripost.

Are just rhetoric intended to give disappointed supporters a lift. Incidentally, her 1.93% first round result was the lowest result ever for a Communist presidential candidate in France.