Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and ...

Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III
What is Neo-Bonapartism in contemporary French politics?
If it is true that it was Nicolas Sarkozy that pushed the farthest the reapprochment of
the French Right wing with the Bonapartist side of the political spectrum under the Fifth
Republic system, his political and historical significance stops here.
In few words, it is not the personage that is worth examining any furthest, but rather what he
stands for, and what his transforming from president of the French Republic into president of
France reveals of the recent developments of the French politics, thus of the society these very
politics frame and evolve within. In even fewer words, it is France in herself that should be
examined. Bonapartism is not a pop-up political phenomenon that invades the political sphere
in an overnight process, but rather a slowly-developing occurrence that roots its foundations in
the social uneasiness, in the economic unrest, in the religious and cultural malaises.
Here lies the force de frappe of Bonapartism. Its entire political dynamic requires the sine qua
non collective aspiration of change to create the conditions necessary to its good functioning,
to its deep-rootedness in the political framework. Call it change or simply political
reactionnarism, the raison d’etre of this federative ideology capitalizes upon a formidable mass
aspiration movement. In fact, even if all the French citizens did not vote for the candidate
Sarkozy in 2007, they all agreed on the necessity of shaking up things, of healing a French
system in shreds. Such a collectively and powerfully shared desire expressed itself even earlier,
before the Sarkozist access to power, in the 2002 presidential race, embodied by the Le Pen
seiure of a second ballot ticket. Decades of both lukewarm Right and Left policies left a bitter-
tasting assessment: the French system was on its knees, be it economically, socially, or
culturally. Change thus was the expression of the political radicalization of France: at this point,
A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/
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