Changing Perspectives
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mercredi 16 janvier 2008
When the last French presidential elections were due in two months’ time, French center-right candidate Nicolas Sarkozy had made his foreign policy vision clear when he stated, "I want a free France, I want a free Europe. I therefore ask our American friends to leave us free, free to be their friends."
Recently, the French bill on immigration imposing DNA testing, a medical test that determines individual hereditary characteristics, to allow family entry and settlement contributes to toughen the relation between the electorate of immigrant descent and the new French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
Sarkozy’s foreign policy marks a real break from what the former president Jacques Chirac used to do. The newly elected president adopts a clear pro-American line. He was one of the few politicians to support the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, and he still is in favor of a constant and deep cooperation with Israel and America. Earlier as a presidential candidate, he stated that he would make France a closer partner with the US but would not confuse friendship with "submission."
Ambivalent Feelings
The Muslim’s community in France has quite ambivalent feelings about Sarkozy. To some right-wing Muslim voters, Sarkozy is the first president who created a French Muslims’ Council. France has its first ethnic minority figure in a senior cabinet post with Rachida Dati, named as justice minister, thanks to Sarkozy. She is often presented as the symbol of the affirmative action policy led by the new president.
Ben Boussif, a Muslim professor in one of the schools in Asnières, a suburb located outside Paris, said, "I used to be a left-wing voter, I am from a socialist background. For a long time I expected the left-wing parties to appoint people from ethnic minorities and to see them evolve in key positions in the government. However, they never did it. Sarkozy made more efforts, he understood the importance of ethnic minorities’ representation in politics."
Boussif’s opinion is quite marginal among French Muslims. Most of French Muslims supported Segolene Royal, the French socialist party’s candidate at the last presidential election. The large majority of French Muslims lives in poor neighborhoods, and they overwhelmingly voted for the left-wing parties.
Sarkozy vs. Chirac
According to El Yamine Soum, a PhD student at the School of High Studies in Social Sciences in Paris, insisted that, "Muslims in France are so critical of Sarkozy to the extent that they cannot adhere to his political program." When it comes to Sarkozy’s market policy, according to Soum, "his extreme free-market policy that helps only wealthy people is unacceptable, and his words on the unnecessary repentance concerning past colonialism added fuel to the fire, without forgetting his strong support to the Israeli government that voters can only grow away from."
A large number of French Muslims regrets Jacques Chirac’s end of presidency. Chirac was certainly criticized for his domestic policy but on the opposite he was mainly admired for his position in foreign affairs. Chirac’s refusal to intervene in Iraq and his famous outburst of anger in Palestine on October 22, 1996, even the way he openly criticized the drastic security measures of the Israeli government during his visit in Jerusalem, remains engraved in people’s mind as symbols of his policy in the Middle East.
Sarkozy’s political line represents a break with the former domestic and foreign policies in France. Contrary to his predecessors, he has an ethnical vision of French society.
Traditionally, the French republican system recognizes, no ethnical or religious communities in its territory. It is one of the main differences with Anglo-Saxon countries, which officially admit multiculturalism. That is why he is scandalized in the public opinion when he named a prefect of Muslim origins in 2004.
Gaullist in Disguise !
His communitarian vision of French society also manifests itself through his perception of the international relations. According to Vincent Geisser, a political scientist at the Institute for Research and Study on the Arab and Muslim world, "Sarkozy put an end to the Gaullist vision of France - Gaullism is a French political ideology based on the thought and action of Charles de Gaulle - from now the Arab politics of France is melted in its Mediterranean policy," He added, "Sarkozy wants to improve his relations with Israel to ameliorate his relationship to the radical part of the Jewish community in France."
Some French believe that "A new era has started concerning French policy in the Middle East and the vision of the new president might isolate a bit more the Palestinian side."
Summarily, it is said that the double strategy of Sarkozy will be strengthening his links with the French Jewish institutions that have strongly supported him during the last French presidential elections and captivate a Muslim electorate that takes a growing influence but still vote in the majority for the left-wing parties.
What do you think of Sarkozy’s foreign policy ? Does that policy affect French Muslims ? If yes, what kind of effects are there ?
Elyamine Settoul is a French PhD student at the Paris Institute of Political Studies. His doctoral thesis in political science is entitled "The Enrolment of Ethnic Minorities in French Army." His Master’s thesis in the Muslim world has the title "The French Muslims and the Issues of the Project of Mosque." He can be reached at Euro_Muslims@iolteam.com.