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

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Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III fears: for the privileged, “do not worry, we are proponents of a liberated capitalism, your interests are safe” and for the middle and working class, “if you work more, you will be rewarded by improved incomes”. Accordingly, and in such a framework, the non-productive citizens are to be sanctionned since they slow down therefore harm the national welfare policy; how convenient does this sound to shake the French welfare system, accused thus of providing assistanship to non-deserving citizens. In few words: carrot and stick policies, Bonapartist fashion. Social fear second; a playfield where Neo Bonapartism expresses all of its populist tips and tricks. The first scapegoat is in fact an easy target since it does not cost any vote and what is more rallies the extreme right electorate: the fear of the other, of the foreigner. And when such a discourse is not hard-hitting enough, the French population is divided into two hierarchical categories: the de souche one, and the immigration-related second class one. Here, the schema is rather simplistic: insecurity, deliquency, social disturbances… quasi all the social troubles are of the making of your foreign-origin neighbor, who by the way should leave “France if he/she does not like it”. Not that France is particularly a “narrow-minded” society where racists, or to be less radical, ethnic-oriented discourses are traditionnaly warmly welcomed, but the relatively peaceful cohabitation of races, ethnicities, and religions was gravely affected by the post-September 11 legacy. In parallel, the failure of the French model of assimilation brought the immigration issue in the headlines, in general in association with social unrest and deliquency. If the latter is associated with the extreme Right “they take our jobs” slogan, the loop is looped, and ends up in an unprecedented Bonapartist-like national identity debate supposed to redefine the identity-bases of the new France, the one where foreigners do not A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/ 104
Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III trouble their neighbors’ sleep. “Securité, autorité, identité” are now occulting the cosmopolitan, multi-ethnic, and so twenty century-like “liberté, égalité, fraternité”. In the same breath, a revival of the Christian origins of France will not hurt since it will bring again into sight values that proved their efficiency by the past, and that are so comforting while looking for a society where order prevails in a well-squarred Bonapartist arrangement. Into the bargain as well, the both extensive and intensive teamwork of several socio-economic factors and structures that enable Neo Bonapartism to become a de facto political plunger that turns into its advantage such a state of affairs. Neo Bonapartism is accordingly a political sickness that combines the effects of several symptoms, among which the weakness and division of the domestic political chessboard and the weaknesses of the Universal Suffrage system, the current organization of the media coupled to an oligarchic business system, and finally the disorganization of the international relations arena and its need of a federative and strong leadership. First and to start with, the organization of the contemporary French politics is witnessing a severe crisis whose stern divisions allowed the emergence of a triumphant Neo-Bonapartism. There is no choice but to acknowledge that the French Leftist disarray helped in strengtening Sarkozy-like politics. The advance of a slow yet firm process of personalization of politics and the unability of the French Parti Socialiste of proposing a strong candidacy that gathers all the sub-trends of the Left under the same leader’s banner compromises its chances of getting through the presidency path. As a matter of fact, the highly non-consensual Royal 2007’s candidacy reflected the image of a weak and highly disorganized party and endangered the gathering of forces within the Socialist camp, in a time Sarkozy’s muscular and highly A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/ 105
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