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

Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III
policy showed how his fellow leaders, just like his fellow citizens in France, were somehow
waiting for a strapping and dynamic leadership to put the international governance back on
track. Obviously, the uncompromising Sarkozist style in that domain created tensions as we saw
in chapter IV, yet, the French are willing to give credit for the foreign activism of their leader in
the international stage. Sarkozy’s globe-trotting France is everywhere, in the battlefields and
summits, reforming the world: conquerant. And for that, for the revival of France’s prestige in
the international stage, Neo-Bonapartism is reaping the fruits domestically.
As a final point, Neo-Bonapartism in contemporary French politics is the complex upshot
of the interraction of various mechanisms, of profound and deeply-rooted malaises of this
society in its entirety. What entered the Elysee palace in 2007 overcomes the Sarkozy character
whose style is likely to hasten his fall as grandly as it allowed him to reach the highest political
function of the country. What is today in power in France seems to be politically-proofed vis a
vis a possible Sarkozy’s defeat in 2012. What rules 2010’s France is powerful enough to survive
all the political vicissitudes regarding its invisible yet strong hold of the commands.
Can France be courageous enough to undertake the reforms necessary to her liberation
from this rampant yet unspoken-of seizure of Neo-Bonapartism? Can France be courageous
enough to combat this political virus that already gangrened her bowels before it is too late,
before the craze attains its eventual stage? Can France be courageous enough to tackle this
challenging twenty first century combat, in the sake of liberty, of equality, of fraternity, of
democracy? The answers to these questions, and to many others, are hazardous: only the
forthcoming France, the post-Sarkozy one can, and eventually will, respond to.
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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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