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

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Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III revival, lead by strong leaderships, requires over-federalists concepts such as motherland (patrie) or honor. On the first one, the Emperor declared that “the first of the virtues is the devotion to the homeland”; a vision developed even further by Sarkozy while he stated that “hating your homeland is to hate yourself”. On the second, Louis Napoleon asserted that “honor for a leader is his morale tax” while Sarkozy declared that “the leader does not grow when the nation declines”. The French president justifies his firmness on such guiding principles by the necessity for the citizens of dragging themselves from their assistantship attitude, and thus paying back their obligations to the very nation which granted them with rights. The exacerbation of the nationalistic fiber reached its peak on two correlated issues during Sarkozy’s presidency: the national identity debate, and the immigration policy of the state. On the both chapters, one of Sarkozy’s earliest reforms was the creation of a “Ministry of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Inclusive Development” since May 2007. The two successive ministers in charge, namely Brice Hortefeux and Eric Besson, are two politicians affiliated to the French ultra-conservatism. It is interesting to highlight that one of the mission of this ministry is “the promotion of the Republican values of France”. The promotion this ministry undertook under the strong leadership of Sarkozy consisted mainly in the over- mediatized ban of the burqa and niqab in the public sphere in the name of the French Laicité, few weeks before Sarkozy’s statement that “Not (granting importance to establishing a dialogue with religion) would be folly, would be a sin [faute] against culture and thought”. The reforming thus appeared as an ethnic and religious discrimination in the very time the French constitution guarantees equality before the law for “without distinction of origin, race, or religion”. As quoted by Derbyshire, “the former Prime Minister Alain Juppé declared that A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/ 34
Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III reasonable anxieties about law and order did not legitimate "exaggerated responses barely compatible with our fundamental values", while De Villepin denounced Sarkozy’s distinction “between "French citizens" and "citizens of foreign origin" is an offense against "the republic and against France" (2010). From this perspective, the very idea of engaging a national identity debate aiming at defining the Frenchness or Frenchlessness, and thus creating a first and a second-class citizenship (The French de souche, and the French via naturalization) is in fact the recycling of what the Extreme Right in general, and Le Pen in particular, declared more than four decades ago. On immigration, the French debate between assimilation and integration is a “long-running dispute that dates back to the French Revolution” as pointed out by Derbyshire (2010). Again, Sarkozy put an end to the French status quo on the question (based on moderated immigration policies until now). Marthaler traced back Sarkozy’s early activism on that question to the Law 2003-1119 of 26 th November 2003 whose objectives were “to restrict illegal immigration, fixing a target of 25,000 deportations in 2006 (compared with 10,000 in 2002) and to reduce the number of asylum-seekers” (2008). The refrain of an “immigration choisie et non subie” serviced Sarkozy’s argument according to which these measures aimed at improving the integration of the foreigners already settled in the Hexagon. The discourse on immigration will follow a gradual radicalization, starting from Sarkozy’s saying in 2006 “If there are people who are not comfortable in France, they should feel free to leave a country which they do not love” to this except of the last July Grenoble Speech: "French nationality should be stripped from anybody who has threatened the life of a police officer or anybody involved in public policing". In the overall context of the Roms’ deportations this summer, the politics of Sarkozy could be A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/ 35
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