COUNTRY PROFILE: FRANCE:EVERY FIVE years, European elections shine a spotlight on the hypocrisy of France's political parties, who profess love for the European project but treat the European Parliament as if it were a sideshow, a sinecure and a parking lot for has-been politicians.
Take President Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing UMP, for example. Rama Yade, the African-born junior minister for human rights, infuriated Sarkozy by refusing to stand as a UMP candidate. Thanks to her outspoken criticism of the government she belongs to, Ms Yade maintains soaring popularity ratings, and she didn’t want to “waste” her time in Strasbourg. To placate Mr Sarkozy, she went to the Élysée bearing chocolates.
Rachida Dati, the failed justice minister, resisted Sarkozy’s attempts to make her number two on the UMP list, to no avail. Dati is to be punished for turning France’s magistrates against her with a seat in the European Parliament.
Opinion polls show that close to 60 per cent of the French will abstain in the election. The UMP should take 27 to 28 per cent of the vote, the opposition socialists 21 to 22 per cent, Francois Bayrou’s centrist MoDem 13 per cent, followed by Europe Écologie (led by the inimitable Daniel Cohn-Bendit) at 10 per cent. A handful of small parties will share the crumbs, including 5 to 6 per cent for Philippe de Villiers’ version of Declan Ganley’s Libertas.
A dearth of exciting issues underlies the immense sigh of boredom that has greeted the campaign in France. The socialists initially campaigned against Mr Sarkozy and against the renewal of José Manuel Barroso’s mandate as president of the European Commission. “It was a big error to start with ‘stop Barroso, stop Sarkozy’,” admits the socialist deputy Jean-Louis Bianco.
For one thing, the socialist heads of government in Europe support Mr Barroso’s quest to be reappointed, and French socialists have emphasised solidarity within the Europe-wide socialist party. Secondly, Mr Bayrou and the far-left Olivier Besancenot, both of whom are taking votes from the socialists, are campaigning on the same slogan.
Otherwise, there’s not much of substance: residual whingeing that France’s Non to the constitutional treaty was not respected; anger among dairy farmers over the falling price of milk; and outrage at an EU directive that allows winegrowers to make rosé by mixing red and white.
The socialists this week filed a complaint with the French broadcasting authority over a government television advertisement encouraging the French to vote. It shows Mr Sarkozy during the EU presidency and at the G20 summit, but not a single MEP. The UMP’s slogan, “When Europe wants to, it can,” alludes to Mr Sarkozy’s stewardship of the EU in the second half of 2008. Mr Sarkozy rises in opinion polls when he is seen to be leading Europe, but last year’s presidency is a campaign argument that enrages the opposition.
Foreign minister Bernard Kouchner provided comic relief when he said he was torn between voting for his former cohorts in the socialist party and his new masters in the UMP. The socialist candidate Harlem Désir compared Mr Kouchner to a dealer who won’t go for a drive in the car he’s trying to sell you.