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

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Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III presidency of the European Union, this latter was “looking at France with the great expectations one can have about a major founding country and at the same time the fear of a dominating attitude that will not respect the European tendency to compromise” (Ricard- Nihoul, 2008). In fact, the Bonapartisation of the EU as put by Duhamel (cf introductory comment of that chapter) started under the German presidency in 2007 with Sarkozy being (literally) the guest star of the Berlin Summit, occulting Angela Merkel’s lukewarm statements with his large-scale reforms and big plans for a stronger Europe. However, one might not conclude from the latter that the French leader’s Europeanist policy is relegating the French interests into the background. EU officials were as severely criticized when French interests were contradicted by the European ones as they were courted when Sarkozy’s stakes corresponded with Europe’s. For instance, and as detailed by The Economist, “to consternation in the Commission, Mr Sarkozy publicly blamed Peter Mandelson, the trade commissioner, arguing that his offer to cut farm tariffs in the Doha trade talks had worried Irish voters” (2008). The same applies to the European Central Bank whose lack of flexibility vis a vis its monetary policy irritated Sarkozy, or even the European lack of consensus around some environmental issues (like the Carbon Tax he so heartedly defended in several European capitals). The escalation of Sarkozy’s verbal raids and criticisms vis a vis the EU reached a peak compelling José Manuel Barroso to urge “Mr. Sarkozy to stop making Brussels a scapegoat” (The Economist, 2008). However, and if a making-up of Nicolas Sarkozy’s European foreign policy is to be done, he has several points in his favors: the management of the EU’s deadlock in Ireland, of the Russo-Georgian conflict, of the Airbus/EADS crisis…etc. As a result, he succeeded in effectively imposing France as a major player and power of the European Union via such an A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/ 84
Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III energetic policy. The mild and half-hearted Chirac’s or Mitterand’s European policies are over: Sarkozy’s agenda for France passes by Europe, then a strong Europe is at the heart of the preoccupation of France in his international activism, since Sarkozy, like Napoleon III, did not limit the scope of his foreign policy to France’s immediate neighborhood: he undertook a horizon-wide conquest of farther (and sometimes improbable) regions of the world. Being in a proper colonial foreign policy, Napoleon III extended the scope of French interventionism to far-off lands. As explained by Miller, the French army was very active in Asia in general and in Indo-China in particular. The imperial breakthrough the region ended up successfully: in 1862 “Cochin China was annexed and a protectorate established over Cambodia” while slightly before, in 1860, a joint France-Britain expedition in Peking “resulted in even greater trading concessions” (Miller, 1997). On the other side of the globe, Napoleon’s (expensive) Mexican conquest (1861-1867) lead by the Austrian Habsburg Archduke Maximilian, revealed the limitless imperialist appetite of the Second Empire’s France. At this point, and on the motives behind such a dynamic foreign policy, Pottinger-Saab explained that “Napoleon III envisaged that his ideas relating to Europe would one day be extended to encompass the world” (2002). Sarkozy as well believes that a shining France passes through the conquest of the international arena, thought not militarily like the emperor. Accordingly, and if such an undertaking means a 180 degrees shift of what appears now as “traditional” French foreign policy, the president did not hesitate in “moving away from the stubbornly independent stance established by Charles De Gaulle and followed by every president since” (Cue, 2007). The examples of a pro-US foreign policy for instance multiplied, among which a muscular stance and US-aligned Iranian policy, A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/ 85
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Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and ...

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