The French Government Remains a Good European - Essay Example

The French government remains a ‘good European’. However, French voters have become increasingly ‘Eurosceptic’’. Discuss. Introduction -What is Eurosceptism? Eurosceptism is nothing but possible demeanors, which can be classified under the Eurosceptic label. “Eurosceptism “connotes distrust and doubt on the concept of European assimilation. The magnitude of this skeptic can vary from moderate to hard core elements. The extreme rightist has gone to the end of outright turning down of EU membership (Flood 2002:73). Paul, Taggart and Aleks Szczerbiak describes that there is exists of two kinds of Eurosceptism which includes both soft and hard Eurosceptism. Hard Eurosceptism is one where there is core opposition for integration into EU and include activists who vehemently raise their voices for withdrawal from EU membership. A soft Eurosceptism can be explained as where activists are not against European assimilation or membership in EU and would advocate that national interest should be given primary priority. (Taggart and Szczerbiak 2002:7). The word “skeptic “originates from the “skeptikos” Greek word which connotes inquiring and thoughtful in a normal sense, as contrasted to easy acknowledgement of debates by others. According to Webster’s dictionary, the word ‘skeptic” refers to an individual who normally questions, doubts or argue against the judgment on issues normally accepted. In other words, skepticism reminds of a philosophical canon that the truth of all wisdom must always be in doubt and that post-mortem or inquiry must be a process of doubting. Hence, Euro-skepticism or Eurosceptic can be explained as an everlasting suspicion of “Europe” as a great project, an opposition about integration of Europe, which is visualised as construction of a powerful and new political mediator in the global arena, a European Europe “that would establish a new power in a multipolar world as contrasted to the contemporary American- overshadowed unipolar setup. It is to be noted that Eurosceptic concept is not against what they visualise as pragmatic advantageous cooperation among various interests of European nations for greater prosperity and peace. However, mainstream Eurosceptic is antagonistic to the concept of attempting to establish a European –level power, i.e. a “European Europe “that would have its own provincial interests. (Tiersky 2001: 3). France and Eurosceptism European Community came into the existence with France being one of the founding members of that community, and it is difficult to visulaise European integration without the presence of France and its leadership. However, France is a nation with vibrant nationalistic feelings, with long annals of nationalistic construction and integration - minded ideology. One may find there is a co-existence of both Eurosceptic feelings along with pro-integrationist gestures. Thus, in the last decade, Euroscepticism has become much perceptible in France in the late 1990s in spite of voices for European integration. It is to be observed that how even famous French politicians since and during the Maastricht Treaty discussions in 1992 expressed antagonism to further assimilation and established new political parties for this objective. (Royall 2004:147). Eurosceptic feelings were evident in France from the starting, but the truth of differences over Europe’s integration was especially evident in more recent periods in the 1992 referendum on the Maastricht Treaty. The 1992 crusade and outcomes exposed a France that was divided into two pro and opposition to Europe assimilation, with forces on the marched up of both Euro-groups concurrently. In the 1992 referendum, Eurosceptic was supported by the main political strings which advocated in the 1992 referendum for a no vote for a European Union. Eurosceptic movement in France was a distinct guise of Gaullist nationalism, supported by political stalwarts like Charles Pasqua and Philippe Seguin. Further, national –populism in the guise of Front National ( FN) founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen and Villeerism, an eccentric political group that created some impact in the 1990s but whose political potential now rests in doubt.( Harmsen & Spiering 2005:37). Front National (FN) most popular slogans like “France for the French” and “France First” were most famous and potent slogans at that time. (Harmsen & Spiering 2005:45). During French parliamentary and presidential elections in 2002, Li Pen of FN demanded for a political referendum to restore back the French Franc and to liberate France out of EU. The FN election manifesto issued during June 2002 emphasised the withdrawal of France from NATO and supremacy of French over the European laws. Li Pen of FN was able to lure French voters against the ruling parties and influential leaders and to bank upon admired cynicism with increased European integration. Nicholas Startin (2002:14) has revealed that while the Gaullist RPF association was founded to garner the Eurosceptic vote in the 1999 Euro-electoral manifestoes, Le-Pen of FN was able to garner the right –wing Eurosceptic voters in the 2002 presidential elections.(Harmsen & Spiering 2005:48). The political party system in France was partially jolted by the materialisation of new political parties chiefly raising their voices against “Maastricht Europe.” The segmentation between anti-Europeanism and pro seemed to be intimidating the supremacy right / left cleavage in the working of the political system in France. Further, Eurosceptic political parties have gained substantial electoral gains. The election succession in France in the spring of 2002 –the first presidential election and then election for the legislature is especially interesting to research from this outlook. The presidential election in 2002 gave a great success to the Eurosceptic parties, whereas they met their greatest defeat in the legislative elections that followed. (Szczerbiak 2008:38). The Emergence of Eurosceptic Parties in France The very first Eurosceptic feelings can be traced to 1950s in France where the proposed European Defence Community was initiated and then with regard to the political notion of the European community at the start of the 1960s, especially between the Christian Democrats and the General de Gaulle. With reference to the Parti Communist, PC (Communist Party), it was antagonists from the beginning to the concept of “Europe Capitalists.” (Szczerbiak 2008:38). It is to be observed that there was no major transformation in the French public opinion until 1992 when there was a substantial change. The French appeared to demonstrate a “façade of acceptance “to accept the phrase often used by Annick Percheron in his one of the French research studies on outlooks with regard to Europe happened in France. (Percheron 1991). In France, European assimilation had formally been a subject matter for government officials and technocrats. It is to be observed that no public referendum has been ever conducted on the integration to European community in France as what had been made in other European States. Further, French voters never had been confabulated on the various stages of European assimilation. However, in the 1972 Referendum on the expansion of European Economic Community (EEC) to the Ireland, Denmark and the UK, French voters were asked to exercise their choices. This referendum had been used by the French opposition political parties for a domestic political combat between right and the left. (Szczerbiak 2008:39). The election held in 1984 was commemorated by the victory of the National Front, which garnered about 11 % of the French votes. The victory of the slate under the leadership of Jean-Marie Le Pen, branding itself the “National Opposition Front for Europe Nations” comprised the first ever substantial deviation in a party system that had been dominated on the division of right and left since 1962. The National Front used the slogan nationalism –cosmopolitanism in the place right / left cleavage for the first time since its electoral success in 1984. (Szczerbiak 2008:39). As per Taggert and Szczerbiak, (2002a), hard Eurosceptic parties are those extreme-rights and extreme left parties that is decisively animosity to European assimilation for varied reasons and the three new Eurosceptic political parties that are unreceptive to the Amsterdam and Maastricht Treaties and the Euro currency. All these political parties had turned down both the Amsterdam and Maastricht Treaties and the Euro, the official single currency of the EU. However, CPNT and the Communist Party of EU appear to be more inclined toward Soft Euroscepticism. (Szczerbiak 2008:46). The 2002 French Elections: The Buoyancy of the Right / Left Cleavage and the debacle of Eurosceptic Parties. In the French election held in 2002, the first ballot demonstrated that the Eurosceptic parties secured the highest cumulated scores, whereas there was weakening vote for the right/left segmentation, especially with rooting out of the Socialist runner and the winning of Le Pen, FN leader in the second ballot. However, if one analyses the whole electoral period, one can understand, that the Eurosceptic parties in France did not able to rupture the nature of the French party setup and the right/left segmentation did not run the peril of being substituted by a political ideology that had the motto of anti Europe integration. (Szczerbiak 2008:46). The Presidential Vote as per attitude towards French membership in Europe. Vote for President –First ballot Vote for President –Second ballot The fact France Belongs to the EU is: Eurosceptic candidates Other Candidates Le Pen A bad thing 78 22 60 Neither good or bad 60 40 32 A good thing 33 67 8 Total 43 57 18 (Szczerbiak 2008:48). As per Eurobarometer (survey) 2002, 52% of the French was of the opinion that EU membership for France is good, 12% was of the opinion that EU membership is bad and 32% was of the view that it is neither good nor bad. However , in the survey conducted in the French election in 2002 the results were slightly varied, as 63% was of the opinion as good , 6% was of the opinion as bad and 31 percent was of the opinion as neither good or bad. (Szczerbiak 2008:48). If the attitude towards construction of single Europe is taken as a sign of Euroscepticism, a strong relationship seems among the ballots for Eurosceptic advocates and the magnitude of voter. Eurosceptic votes -78% of Hard Eurosceptic ballots were casted favouring Eurosceptic candidates as contrasted 60% of soft Eurosceptic voters and about 33% non-Eurosceptic voters. In the 2002 presidential election where Jacques Chirac fielded against Jean-Marie Le Pen, 60% votes casted represent for good, 32% votes casted represent bad and 8% votes casted represent neither good nor bad. Thus, the above findings could push us to presume that the European integration played a vital role in the 2002 presidential election in France. (Szczerbiak 2008:46). Batory and Sitter (2004) reveal that coalition –seeking and vote –seeking demeanor will be deciding a party’s Eurosceptic status. The Gaullists are nationalists and ever had a soft-skeptic approach to European assimilation. When de Gaulle monopolised Eurosceptic disclosure during the Empty Chair Crisis and the withdrawal from NATO in 1966, the importance of the European question for the Communists in electoral terms had declined. (Arato & Kaniok 2009:287). Eurosceptism in recent times in France In France, the European single currency is under fabulous pressure. Many French traders and citizens prefer Francs over Euro. According to the business circles, the choice by traders to accept Franc against Euro should not be considered as a dissent against Euro but aim to give a moderate boost to their business. In France, there is ever mounting anti-European sentiments as there is an unprecedented increase in unemployment and reduction in farm subsidies. There is a general feeling among ordinary French citizens that Euro is the main culprit for increases in prices as it soared up from the time when Euro introduced in France. Further, French citizens are of the view that they are paying overtax and feeding others due to additional commitments fall on them due to EU expansion to the East. Many French are of the opinion that farmers’ revenue had fallen down by 30% in 2009 and about 20% in the year 2008 despite the assurance given by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to wrestle to maintain EU financial aid or subsidies to French farmers. Until recently, French farmers have enjoyed generous EU monetary subsidies and now these have been reduced substantially. In 2009, EU held that some part of subsidies that French farmers have been enjoying from the French government was illegitimate and many of them were asked to restore back the same to the French government. Now, French farmers are of the view that they are squeezed due to oppressive European Union’s arbitrary agricultural subsidy policies. It is to be noted that no one in France is having the feeling that France should come out of EU but farmers are of the view that EU do not have any coherent future agricultural policy either for European Union or for the future of France. Eurosceptic in France cite that the present unemployment in France has touched a new height of 10% and there is escalating tension over the future. Eurosceptic in France also cites the Greek financial crisis and now Ireland is in financial crisis, which may demand the EU to bail out the Ireland as in the case of Greece and these events have increased the fears about the future of the Euro in France. Conclusion Thus, an overall examination of Eurosceptic in France gives us a picture that Eurosceptic in France is noticeably a marginal trend which is rarely observed in the mainstream politics of France. Further, in France, there is a wide gulf within the center-left and the center-right over European assimilation. Since 1999, there is some corroboration of heightened insolence in search of national interest. Eurosceptic is on the increase among French due to increasing financial encumbrance of EU membership and increasing discontent from French farmers due to lessening agricultural subsidy and in general, French are now more worried with ever increasing price increase and ever mounting unemployment which they deem it due to EU East wide expansion and bailing out of Greece and in the near future Ireland also. To the magnitude that the Eurosceptic belief has shifted into the mainstream in France will be primarily taking the route of mild guise of a more vibrant defense of national interest, especially pecuniary concern, within the EU policy tracks. At present, in France, there is ever mounting anti-European sentiments as there is an unprecedented increase in unemployment and reduction in farm subsidies. There is a general feeling among ordinary French citizens that Euro is the main culprit for increases in prices as it soared up from the time when Euro introduced in France. Further, French citizens are of the view that they are paying overtax and feeding others due to additional commitments fall on them due to EU expansion to the East. Many French are of the opinion that farmers’ revenue had fallen down by 30% in 2009 and about 20% in the year 2008. If both French government and EU administration do not pay adequate attention to the contemporary feelings about EU by the French citizens, there is every chance Eurosceptism may become major slogan in French politics which may push the France to come out of EU to safeguard its national interest in the near future. Hence, enough strategies should be worked out to create more employment in France, to increase the farm subsidies and to arrest the price rise to see that France remains within European Union without any grumble or grouse. List of References Arato Krisztina & Kaniok Petr. (2009).Eurosceptism and European Integration. New York: CPI/PSRC. BBC.Co.UK. (2010). Eurosceptic Town Rejects Euro. [online] available from > http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8588048.stm> [accessed 3 December 2010]. Flood, Christopher. (2002). The Challenge of Euroscepticism. In Jackie Gower ed. The European Union Handbook 2nd Edition. London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. Harmsen Robert, Menno Spiering. (2005). Euroscepticism: Party Politics, National Identity and European Integration. New York: Rodopi. Royall, Frederic. (2004). Contemporary French Cultures and Societies. London: Peter Lang. Szczerbiak, Aleks and Paul Taggart (2002). Opposing Europe: Party Systems and Opposition to the Union, the Euro and Europenisation. SEI Working Paper No. 36 (also Opposing Europe Research Network Working Paper No. 1.) Sussex: Sussex European Institute. Szczerbiak, Aleks. (2008). Opposing Europe? The Comparative Party Politics of Euroscepticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Taggart, Paul and Aleks Szczerbiak. (2002). The Party Politics of Euroscepticism in EU Member and Candidate States” SEI Working Paper No 51 (also Opposing Europe Research Network Working Paper No 6.) Sussex: Sussex European Institute. Tiersky, Ronald. (2001). Euro-Skepticism: A Reader. New York: Rowman & Little Field. Appendix – Tables “Party Families of Political parties with Eurosceptic tendency in France “ “Party” “Party Family “ “Communist Party” Lutte Ouvriere Revolutionary Communists League “National Front ( Le Pen) “ “National Mouvement ( Megret) “ “Citizens Movement “(Chevenement) “Movement for France ( de Villiers) “ “Rally for France and Independence of Europe “(Pasqua)” “Extreme Left “ Extreme Left Extreme Left “Extreme Right” “Extreme Right” “Anti-EU” “Jacobin “ “Gaullist “ “L” L L “R” R L R R Source:http://www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr/events/jointsessions/paperarchive/turin/ws25/taggartszczerbiak.pdf Modern-day French Political parties with Soft and Hard Eurosceptism in France (French Parliament Election outcomes from the mainly latest elections and time of election in brackets wherever appropriate) Hard Soft Soft Communist Party (9.98-1997) Citizens Movement (1.0 -1997) Lutte Ouvriere (1.2-1997) “Movement for France (de Villiers) (2.7 -1997).” Revolutionary Communists League (0.2 -1997) “Rally for France and Independence of Europe( Pasqua) “ “National Front ( Le Pen) (15.3 -1997)” “National Movement ( Megret) “ Source:http://www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr/events/jointsessions/paperarchive/turin/ws25/taggartszczerbiak.pdf Read More