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

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Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III consensual take over of the UMP conveyed the image of a unified party that mobilized all of its political levearages in supporting its candidate. Nowadays, and despite a severe blow inflicted to the Right wing during the last mi-mandate regional elections of March 2010 that revealed a historically low score for the Right under the Fifth Republic regime (of only 35,38 % while the Leftist list scored a confortable 53,47 % of the total of expressed votes 3 ), the Leftist undertaking of the 2012’s presidential race do not seem to be facilitated by this electoral achievement. Two reasons explain such an assessment. First, this electoral result is rather a plebiscitarian disapproval of Sarkozy himself (and of his politics by extenso), as shown by his current extremely low confidence ratings, than a real return of the Left to the headlines. As matter of fact, the French are accustomed to and proponents of the sanction vote technique: they showed it by the past during their “No” to the European Constitution in 2005 that was more a clear political disavowal of Chirac’s than the simple formulation of their disapproval vis a vis the EU. Accordingly, it is legitimate to be questioning and unconvinced about a real break through of the PS in the French political life. Second, and as if the lessons to be learned from the past were not accuratly digested by the Socialists, the way they are preparing their party’s “primaires” for the 2012’s presidential candidacy are a reproduction of their 2007’s miscalculation. As a matter of fact, the up-to-date developments backed up by several recent opinion polls, showed that only one Leftist pretendant is able to face up a 2012’s Sarkozy presidency: namely Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the current head of the International Monetary Fund. Here, and after an initial good move toward a Royal-Aubry-Lang Pact supporting a DSK’s candidacy, internal splittings and scissions appeared, embodied the late week of November in a 3 Official statistics of the French ministry of the Interior, retrieved from : http://www.interieur.gouv.fr/sections/a_votre_service/resultats-elections/RG2010/FE.html A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/ 106
Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III thundering and go-alone Royal’s candidacy to the PS’s primaires. It is undoubious then that Sarkozy will exploit this divergence and turn it into his advantage, precisely in the manner of what he did in 2007. Second, Neo-Bonapartism is empowered by the current organization of both the media system and the CAC 40 business’ oligarchy. As a matter of fact, and as we discovered in the media and business chapters of this research, its heavy reliance upon a spider web of powerful ties with the command circles provides it with a strong foundation. Neo-Bonapartism acknowledged rightfully the full-scale possibilities such friendships and acquaintances can offer, especially in terms of political leaverages. At this point, Sarkozy is only an insignificant extention of this oligarchic club of power; and if truth been told, this latter benefites more of such a state of affairs than the puppet leader it places at the highest strata of political power. In this win-win situation, the sole loser seems to be democracy, and by extenso the representation and defense of the masses’ interests within the political game. Being locked up, the current oligarchic tendency of the circles of influence, be it the media or the businesses, poses clearly the conflict of interests question within what is considered as one of the most achieved model of Western-style democracies. The conspiracy-inspired communist vision takes a full shape in Sarkozy’s France and can be granted here some credit for describing the diktat of the ownership in capitalist-oriented contemporary societies. The initial corrective measure endorsed to prevent and correct such a derive, that is the establishment of counter-balances (mainly the parliament, senate, and other republican institutions) pale into significance in a Neo Bonapartist style of governance and therefore appear outdated. In a court-like approach, the interests of the powerful friends of the backstage, is assured perennial horizons since the entire A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/ 107
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Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and ...

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