Image courtesy the Guardian
Well, someone is happy (and rightly so, it seems) about François Hollande’s victory in France. Paul Krugman writes:
Needless to say, that’s not what you heard from the usual suspects in the run-up to the elections. It was actually kind of funny to see the apostles of orthodoxy trying to portray the cautious, mild-mannered François Hollande as a figure of menace. He is “rather dangerous,” declared The Economist, which observed that he “genuinely believes in the need to create a fairer society.” Quelle horreur!The Economist article in question is a rather slipshod piece of work, given its espousal of the tired old Calvinist stereotypes of a ‘prudent north’ of Europe and a ‘spendthrift south’, and its affected and studied ignorance of the trade imbalances which have rocketed the growth of urban centres in Germany and France, at the expense of the ‘spendthrifts’ who actually provide markets for their businesses. But the more interesting analysis should be of which voters are these which catapulted to power France’s first socialist president in over twenty years.
What is true is that Mr. Hollande’s victory means the end of “Merkozy,” the Franco-German axis that has enforced the austerity regime of the past two years. This would be a “dangerous” development if that strategy were working, or even had a reasonable chance of working. But it isn’t and doesn’t; it’s time to move on. Europe’s voters, it turns out, are wiser than the Continent’s best and brightest.
Hollande’s bases of support against Sarkozy (and Le Pen in the primaries a couple of weeks back) were, in short, primarily in la France profonde (‘deep France’ or the French countryside) - notably those parts of the French countryside whose tongue differs significantly from the Parisian langue d’oïl. The historically Angevin and Anglophile Gascon- (and Basque-) speaking regions of Guyenne, Poitou, Gascony and the Pyrenees. The Breton-speakers who retain close linguistic and cultural ties with Wales. The speakers of Languedocien who look southward to Catalonia. Socialists, take note that the Front National did not perform well in these places, despite (or perhaps because of) the residents’ Catholicism and their wish to retain their local cultural distinctiveness, traditions and languages. There is still potential for a politics of paradox to take root in France, powered by a left-leaning social Catholicism.
Great post, Matthew. I also found the geography of the results to be rather interesting. I was disappointed by the general lack of English-language coverage on that aspect of the election.
ReplyDeleteHi John! Thanks for the comment!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I was kind of surprised too - not necessarily about the amount of time I had to spend digging for news stories, but about the quality of those which came up. Paul Krugman was one of the more level-headed commentators; the Economist (to its partial credit) was not quite as hyperventilatory and hysterical as Forbes was about Hollande, though.
It's interesting; the British people I have talked with seem somewhat relieved about Hollande and the political demise of Sarkozy. I think it may be an uphill battle for the Cleggeron coalition to survive the coming British general election if that continues to be the case. Particularly if, as our friend David has been maintaining, the sympathies of those in deep England (as in deep France) are trudging leftward out of disaffection for those who should be the ones most eager to preserve their traditions.