French Politics Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

French Politics - Research Paper ExampleSarko represents UMP (Union pour un mouvement populaire). He is neo-liberal, authoritarian, pro-American and pro-Israeli. Except for Socialist Francois Mittereands 14 years reign, France has been ruled by right wing forces since 1958 when Charles de Gaulle ushered in the new Republican regime. Paving the way for the electoral victory of the 52-year old leader of the French Right were the simultaneous decomposition of the French Left and Sarkozys successful unification of the three streams of the Right - neoliberal, national and fascist.When Sarkozy became Monsieur le President de la Republique, the 23rd French chief of state, the sixth since the new Constitution of 1958 that initiated the Fifth Republic of France, his true intentions for promised new directions were still ambiguous.Upon the election of Nicolas Sarkozy there was a strong current in the media - both in France and internationally - claiming that things had changed. Sarkozy, it wa s said, was the man who would cut back the gluttonous French state, modernising the economy by restrain the power of the unions and replacing the France of the 35-hour-week with a new more flexible culture that valued hard work. French workers had to prepare for Sarkozys onslaught. As we have seen with Novembers groom strikes, university occupations and rioting in the suburbs, resistance to Sarkozy is deep-rooted. Some activists have used the catch-cry Sarko-facho (Sarkozy-fascist) portrayed him as nothing but a lickspittle of George Bush or, as the Iranian media at present have it, a Mossad agent. Yet most of the French Presidents pronouncements seem to be in tune with the anti-working class, conservative and authoritarian political tradition of General de Gaulle.On the other hand, Sarkozys underlining of great national objectives means distancing France from the spirit of liberal free trade.The French Left accuses Sarkozy of being authoritarian and of unstable character. The Le fts electoral campaign too soon this year aimed at trying to rouse his ire and demonstrate his incapacity of leading la douce France. The crude reality is that while the French Left claims a monopoly on morality, the political Right dominates this largely conservative, extremely traditional nation.We only have to think back to spring 2006 when the previous UMP Gaullist government try to introduce the CPE law to undermine young workers job stability, or 2005 when it backed the EU Constitution. The continuity in the history of the French right is examined in virtually detail in the latest issue of the Ni Patrie ni Frontires journal*, which devotes some 62 pages to assessing the character of so-called Sarkozyism. Sarkozy has taken on great personal power, setting great store by his own image and casting himself as somewhat of a national saviour, in the mould of de Gaulle or a Napoleon.The assertion that Sarkozy represents an