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

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Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III verdict on other foreign adventures of the Second Empire, Louis cannot be denied an important part in one scheme of lasting international importance (idea of joining the Mediterranean and the Red Sea)– the construction of the Suez Canal” (1955). However, and to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, tracing the origins of this Canal ends up in 1789, with Napoleon Bonaparte’s prospecting in the region. His nephew materialized then this Napoleonic Grand Plan half a decade after the withdrawal of the “Grande Armée” from Egypt in the early 1800s. According to Thompson, Napoleon III benefited from the “accession of a new Viceroy, Abbas Pasha, and the enterprise of Linant and Mougel”, a state of affairs which “encouraged him to bring the project before the government and financiers of Europe” (1955). One century and a half later, the Bonapartist Mediterranean vision knew an unexpected (and quite pompous) revival with the victory-speech of Nicolas Sarkozy, the 10 th of May 2007. Nash cites at this regard Sarkozy’s “Kennedy-esque speech”: “I want to issue a call to all the people of the Mediterranean to tell them it is in the Mediterranean that everything is going to be played out, that we have to overcome all kinds of hatred to pave the way for a great dream of peace and a great dream of civilization” (2008). In fact, the bridging of Southern Europe with Northern Africa is simply the recycling of the Barcelona Process (also known as the Euromed Partnership) launched in 1995 under the European Union banner, even if two noticeable changes are worth highlighting in the MU (Mediterranean Union) plan: first the appropriation of the project by the French president, and second the broadening of the scale of cooperation in the Sarkozist vision. Actually, the sixteen countries included in the board of governors of the Mediterranean Union (namely France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Israel, Turkey, Lebanon, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco) are expected to increase regional collaboration in terms A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/ 80
Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III of financial cooperation (creation of a Mediterranean Bank, European Central Bank style), immigration and terrorism-related mutual support, and finally a strengthened energy and environment regional policy. Obviously, behind Sarkozy’s federative approach of the Mediterranean “dream of civilization”, there is more at stake than only its (clearly) stated “general effort to rehabilitate French colonialism by accentuating its positive aspects and showcasing its most humanitarian administrators” (Bowen, 2007). If the Mediterranean is for Sarkozy a “key to (France’s) influence in the world” (Nash, 2008), it is also because such an undertaking is likely to compensate for Turkey’s entry in the European Union; an access the French head of state is vehemently opposed to since years, regarding it as threatening vis a vis his conception of European identity (not inclusive of the Islamic tradition of the Ottomans descendants). In addition, Sarkozy’s master plan wanted to rehabilitate its Israeli friends (as we shall see later in this chapter) within the Arab world in a conciliatory approach, since the Mediterranean Union meetings will be the only ones where Arab countries are supposed to formally cooperate with Israel. Into the bargain as well a strategic raid over North Africa’s gas reserves Sarkozy’s envisions in return for “French expertise on nuclear energy” (Nash, 2008). However, the idea of the Mediterranean Sea as Sarkozy’s Mare Nostrum was harshly welcomed by the European countries with no Mediterranean shore. As explained by The Economist, “the entire project is dismissed by some in Berlin and Brussels as no better than a diversion of EU cash to promote French gloire” (2008). Finally, and discontent with Sarkozy’s stealing of the original EU’s Barcelona Process, the United Kingdom and Germany compelled the detachment of the Mediterranean Union from France which “has since been forced to water down the vision” (The Economist, 2008); it is now an EU project, not Sarkozy’s. A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/ 81
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