Politics of France
Encyclopedia
France
is a semi-presidential
representative democratic
republic
, in which the President of France is head of state
and the Prime Minister of France
is the head of government
, and there is a pluriform, multi-party system
. Executive power
is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in the government, Senate and National Assembly
. The judiciary
is independent of the executive and the legislature.
, the political spectrum
in France has obeyed the left-right distinction. However, due to the historical association of the term droite "right" with monarchism
, conservative or right-wing parties have tended to avoid officially describing themselves as representing the "right wing".
The Left was in power during:
After 1959, both parties were in opposition until 1981. They had formed a coalition (with the Party Radical de Gauche) called the "Union de la Gauche" between 1972 to 1978.
The Old Left was contested on its left by the New Left
parties including the
However, the emblem of the New Left was the Unified Socialist Party
, or PSU.
.
These included:
(referred to in French simply as libéralisme). Today, they are broadly classified as centre-right or centrist parties.
These included:
Today, a large majority of the politicians of Nicolas Sarkozy
's ruling Union for a Popular Movement
can be classified in this family.
then the Union of Democrats for the Republic
in the Rally for the Republic
(RPR) in 1976, a neo-Gaullist party which embraced economic liberalism.
In 2002 the RPR became the Union for the Presidential Majority and then the Union for a Popular Movement
in an attempt to unify the French conservatives together with a minority of the Union for French Democracy
(UDF).
In 2007, a section of the remaining UDF, headed by François Bayrou
, refused to align themselves on Nicolas Sarkozy
and created the MoDem
in an attempt to make space for a center-right party.
In conclusion, Jean-Marie Le Pen
managed to unify most of the French far-right in the National Front, created in 1972 in the aftermaths of the Algerian War, which succeeded in gaining influence starting in the 1980s.
Residual monarchists movements, inheritors of Charles Maurras
' Action française
, also managed to survive, although many of them joined Le Pen's FN in the 1980s. Some neo-fascists who considered Le Pen to be too moderate broke away in 1974 to form the Parti des forces nouvelles
, which maintained close links to the far-right students' union Groupe Union Défense.
Another important theoretical influence in the far-right appeared in the 1980s with Alain de Benoist
's Nouvelle Droite
movement, organized into the GRECE.
Despite Le Pen's success in the 2002 presidential election
,
his party has been weakened by Bruno Mégret
's spin-out, leading to the creation of the National Republican Movement
, as well as by the concurrence of Philippe de Villiers
' Movement for France
, and also by the internal struggles concerning Le Pen's forthcoming succession.
, founded in 1958 amid the troubles brought by the Algerian War (1954–62), France was ruled by successive right-wing administrations until 1981.
The successive governments generally applied the Gaullist
program of national independence, and modernization in a dirigiste
fashion.
The political instability characteristic of the Fourth Republic was gone. The far-right extremists who had threatened military coups over the question of French Algeria largely receded after Algeria was granted independence. The French Communist Party
's image gradually became less radical. Politics largely turned into a Gaullists vs left-wing opposition.
The Gaullist government, however, was criticized for its heavy-handedness: while elections were free, the state had a monopoly on radio and TV broadcasting and sought to have its point of view on events imposed (this monopoly was not absolute, however, since there were radio stations transmitting from nearby countries specifically for the benefit of the French).
Although Gaullism, which had gained legitimacy during World War II
, initially also attracted several left-wing individuals, Gaullism in government became decidedly conservative.
In 1962, de Gaulle had the French citizens vote in a referendum concerning the election of the president at universal suffrage
, something which had been discredited since Napoleon III's 1851 coup.
3/5 of the voters approved however the referendum, and thereafter the President of the French Republic
was elected at universal suffrage, giving him increased authority on the Parliament. De Gaulle won the 1965 presidential election
, opposed on his left by François Mitterrand
who had taken the lead of the Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left
, a coalition of most left-wing parties (apart from the French Communist Party
, then led by Waldeck Rochet
who did call to vote for Mitterrand).
In May 1968, a series of worker strikes and student riots rocked France. These did not, however, result in an immediate change of government, with a right-wing administration being triumphantly reelected in the snap election of June 1968
.
However, in 1969 the French electorate turned down a referendum on the reform of the French Senate
proposed by de Gaulle. Since the latter had always declared that in the eventuality of a "NO" to a referendum he would resign, the referendum was also a plebiscite.
Thus, the rejection of the reform by more than 52% of the voters was widely considered to be mostly motivated by weariness with de Gaulle, and ultimately provoked his resignation that year.
May '68 and its aftermaths saw the occupation of the LIP factory in Besançon
, one of the major social conflict of the 1970s, during which the CFDT and the Unified Socialist Party
, of which Pierre Mendès-France
was a member, theorized workers' self-management
.
Apart of the PSU, the autonomist movement, inspired by Italian operaismo, made its first appearance on the political scene.
Georges Pompidou
, de Gaulle's Prime Minister, was elected in 1969
, remaining President until his death in 1974.
In 1972, 3/5 of the French approved by referendum
the enlargement of the European Economic Community
(CEE) to the United Kingdom, Denmark, Ireland, and Norway.
After Pompidou's sudden death, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
managed to overhaul the remaining Gaullist barons — with the help of Jacques Chirac
—, and won the subsequent election
against François Mitterrand
on the left.
Giscard transformed the ORTF, the state organism in charge of media, and created several different channels, including Radio France
.
However, it was not until François Mitterrand
's accession to the Élysée Palace
in 1981 that media were liberalized.
, a Socialist, was elected president
, on a program of far-reaching reforms (110 Propositions for France
). This was enabled by the 1972 Common Program between the PS, the PRG
and the PCF
— which had remained, just as in Italy
, a strong party through-out the Cold War
.
After securing a majority in parliament through a snap election
, his government ran a program of social and economic reforms:
However, in 1983, high inflation and economic woes forced a dramatic turnaround with respect to economic policies, known as rigueur (rigor) – the Socialist-Communist government then embarked on policies of fiscal and spending restraint.
Though the nationalizations were subsequently reversed by both subsequent left-wing and right-wing governments, the social reforms undertaken have remained standing.
Furthermore, the end of the Trente Glorieuses
(Thirty Glorious) period of growth witnesses the beginning of a structural unemployment
, which became an important political issue.
Since the 1980s, unemployment has remained permanently high, at about 10% of the population, regardless of the policies applied to fight it.
In 1986, Jacques Chirac
's neo-Gaullist Rally for the Republic
(RPR) party won the legislative election
.
For the first time in the Fifth Republic, a left-wing President was forced to compose with a right-wing Prime minister, leading to the first cohabitation
. Although many commentators were surprised at the time, and considered it to be an institutional crisis, some claiming the Fifth Republic could not accommodate itself of such rivalry at the head of the state, cohabitation repeated itself after the 1993 elections
, when the RPR again won the elections, and then after the 1997 elections
, when the Socialist Party won, leading to the constitution of Lionel Jospin
's Plural Left government while Chirac was only at the beginning of his first presidential term.
The tradition in periods of "cohabitation" (a President of one party, prime minister of another) is for the President to exercise the primary role in foreign and security policy, with the dominant role in domestic policy falling to the prime minister and his government. Jospin stated, however, that he would not a priori leave any domain exclusively to the President, as that was a tradition issued from de Gaulle.
Since then, the government alternated between a left-wing coalition (composed of the French Socialist Party (PS), the French Communist Party
(PCF) and more recently Les Verts
, the Greens) and a right-wing coalition (composed of Jacques Chirac
's Rally for the Republic
(RPR), later replaced by the Union for a Popular Movement
(UMP), and the Union for French Democracy
, UDF).
Those two coalitions are fairly stable; there have been none of the mid-term coalition reorganizations and governments frequently overthrown which were commonplace under the Fourth Republic.
The 1980s and 1990s saw also the rise of Jean-Marie Le Pen
's National Front (FN), a far-right party which blames immigration, more particularly immigration from North African countries such as Algeria
, for increased unemployment
and crime.
The social situation in the French suburbs
(banlieues: literally, "suburbs", but in France a euphemism for large suburban housing projects for the poor, with a high proportion of the population of North African descent) still have to be successfully tackled.
Jean-Marie Le Pen's relative success at the French Presidential election, 2002 has been attributed in part to concerns about juvenile criminality.
Massive general strikes followed by all the trade-unions were triggered in November–December 1995, paralyzing France, in protest against the Juppé plan
of libéral (in French, free market) reforms.
These strikes were generally considered a turning point in the French social movement.
It remains to be seen how much of these reforms will now be enacted by Sarkozy's first government, as Sarkozy was elected President on a similar platform in May 2007.
's prime minister was Alain Juppé
, who served contemporaneously as leader of Chirac's neo-Gaullist Rally for the Republic
(RPR). Chirac and Juppé benefited from a very large, if rather unruly, majority in the National Assembly (470 out of 577 seats).
Mindful that the government might have to take politically costly decisions in advance of the legislative elections planned for spring 1998 in order to ensure that France met the Maastricht criteria
for the single currency of the EU
, Chirac decided in April 1997 to call early elections
.
The Left, led by Socialist Party
leader Lionel Jospin
, whom Chirac had defeated in the 1995 presidential race
, unexpectedly won a solid National Assembly majority (319 seats, with 289 required for an absolute majority). President Chirac named Jospin prime minister on June 2, and Jospin went on to form a Plural Left government composed primarily of Socialist ministers, along with some ministers from allied parties of the left, such as the Communist Party
and the Greens
.
Jospin stated his support for continued European integration and his intention to keep France on the path towards Economic and Monetary Union, albeit with greater attention to social concerns.
Chirac and Jospin worked together, for the most part, in the foreign affairs field with representatives of the presidency and the government pursuing a single, agreed French policy. Their "cohabitation" arrangement was the longest-lasting in the history of the Fifth Republic.
.
This led to President Chirac's appointment of Jean-Pierre Raffarin
(UMP
) as the new prime minister.
On May 29, 2005, French voters in the referendum
on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe
turned down the proposed charter by a wide margin.
This was generally regarded as a rebuke to Chirac and his government as well as the PS leadership, the majority save for the leftist faction and Laurent Fabius
— had supported the proposed constitution.
Two days later, Raffarin resigned and Chirac appointed Dominique de Villepin
, formerly Foreign Minister as Prime Minister of France.
An enduring force is Jean-Marie Le Pen
's National Front
party, whose anti-immigration, isolationist policies have been described by critics as inspired by xenophobia
. Le Pen's survival into the runoff of 2002 had many observers worried this time, but in the 2007 first round
Le Pen finished a distant fourth.
The February 23, 2005 French law on colonialism
was met by a public uproar on the left-wing. Voted by the UMP majority, it was charged with advocating historical revisionism
, and after long debates and international opposition (from Abdelaziz Bouteflika
or Aimé Césaire
, founder of the Négritude
movement), was repealed by Jacques Chirac
himself.
In Autumn 2005, civil unrest
erupted in a number of lower classes suburbs
due to the violence of the police. As a result, the government invoked a state of emergency
which lasted until January 2006.
In 2006, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin
enacted amendments that established a First Employment Contract
, known as the CPE, a special kind of employment contract under which workers under the age of 26 could be hired and fired liberally.
Proponents of the measure argued that French workforce laws, which put the burden of proof on the employer for dismissing employees, dissuaded employers from hiring new employees; according to them, this is one reason while the unemployment rate of those under 26 is 23% and that of youngsters from some lower classes neighbourhoods
as high as 40%, and not the refusal of exploitation to enrich the wealthy class.
However, the plan backfired, with criticism both on the way the law was passed (using an exceptional legislative procedure) and on the law itself, which was criticized both for weakening workers' rights in general, and for singling out the young disfavourably instead of attempting to cure more general issues. Following the 2006 protests against the CPE, the government had to withdraw the legislation.
Following from these events, Villepin lost all hopes of winning the presidency, and his government no longer tried to enact reforms.
, individualism society and the market system, as opposed to government intervention in the economy. Broadly speaking, supporters of libéralisme want to let the forces of the free market
operate with less regulation. For example, they want little regulation of the workforce and repeal of French laws setting a 35-hour work week rather than leaving this to contract negotiations. Critics of libéralisme argue that governmental intervention is necessary for the welfare of workers; they point out that great gains in workers' rights were historically achieved by government intervention and social mobilization, as during the Popular Front
. Similarly, proponents of libéralisme favour free markets and the free movement of goods, which critics contend benefit the wealthy class at the expense of the ordinary worker.
According to historian René Rémond
's famous classification of the right-wings in France, this libérale tradition belongs to the Orleanist
inheritance, while Gaullists inherited from Bonapartism
and a tradition of state intervention issued from the National Council of Resistance (CNR)'s welfare state
program after the war. However, neo-Gaullists have since rallied economic liberalism, with the result that modern French conservatives — such as the UMP
, or before that the RPR
, the UDF or the Independent Republicans
— all supported economic liberalism. The so-called right-wing of the Socialist Party
: Francois Hollande
, Dominique Strauss-Kahn
, Ségolène Royal
have done likewise.
Some rightists, such as Nicolas Sarkozy
, favour radical change in the relationship between the government and the free-market. They argue that for the last 30 years, under both left-wing and right-wing governments, the French have been misled into believing that things could go on without real reforms. One may say that they favour a Thatcherite
approach. Others on the right (including Dominique de Villepin
) as well as some on the left argue in favour of gradual reforms. In comparison, the 2005 refusal of the French electorate to vote for the proposed European Constitution was interpreted by some — in particular the French Communist Party
and far-left parties such as LO
or the LCR
— as a popular refusal of libéralisme, which the European Union is perceived to embody. Some such as Laurent Fabius
have argued that the Socialist Party should thus have a more "left-wing" line.
Libertarianism
as such is rare in France; it is considered a form of ultra-liberalism or neo-liberalism and upheld only by very few right-wingers, such as Alain Madelin
.
Employers' organisations.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
is a semi-presidential
Semi-presidential system
The semi-presidential system is a system of government in which a president and a prime minister are both active participants in the day-to-day administration of the state...
representative democratic
Representative democracy
Representative democracy is a form of government founded on the principle of elected individuals representing the people, as opposed to autocracy and direct democracy...
republic
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...
, in which the President of France is head of state
Head of State
A head of state is the individual that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchy, republic, federation, commonwealth or other kind of state. His or her role generally includes legitimizing the state and exercising the political powers, functions, and duties granted to the head of...
and the Prime Minister of France
Prime Minister of France
The Prime Minister of France in the Fifth Republic is the head of government and of the Council of Ministers of France. The head of state is the President of the French Republic...
is the head of government
Head of government
Head of government is the chief officer of the executive branch of a government, often presiding over a cabinet. In a parliamentary system, the head of government is often styled prime minister, chief minister, premier, etc...
, and there is a pluriform, multi-party system
Multi-party system
A multi-party system is a system in which multiple political parties have the capacity to gain control of government separately or in coalition, e.g.The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition in the United Kingdom formed in 2010. The effective number of parties in a multi-party system is normally...
. Executive power
Executive Power
Executive Power is Vince Flynn's fifth novel, and the fourth to feature Mitch Rapp, an American agent that works for the CIA as an operative for a covert counter terrorism unit called the "Orion Team."-Plot summary:...
is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in the government, Senate and National Assembly
French National Assembly
The French National Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of France under the Fifth Republic. The upper house is the Senate ....
. The judiciary
Judiciary
The judiciary is the system of courts that interprets and applies the law in the name of the state. The judiciary also provides a mechanism for the resolution of disputes...
is independent of the executive and the legislature.
Left and Right in France and main political parties
Since the 1789 French RevolutionFrench Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, the political spectrum
Political spectrum
A political spectrum is a way of modeling different political positions by placing them upon one or more geometric axes symbolizing independent political dimensions....
in France has obeyed the left-right distinction. However, due to the historical association of the term droite "right" with monarchism
Monarchism
Monarchism is the advocacy of the establishment, preservation, or restoration of a monarchy as a form of government in a nation. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government out of principle, independent from the person, the Monarch.In this system, the Monarch may be the...
, conservative or right-wing parties have tended to avoid officially describing themselves as representing the "right wing".
The Left
At the beginning of the 20th century, the French Left divided itself into :- The Anarchists, who were more in active in trade unions (they controlled the CGT from 1906 to 1909).
- Revolutionaries: the SFIO founded by Jean JaurèsJean JaurèsJean Léon Jaurès was a French Socialist leader. Initially an Opportunist Republican, he evolved into one of the first social democrats, becoming the leader, in 1902, of the French Socialist Party, which opposed Jules Guesde's revolutionary Socialist Party of France. Both parties merged in 1905 in...
, Jules GuesdeJules GuesdeJules Basile Guesde was a French socialist journalist and politician.Guesde was the inspiration for a famous quotation by Karl Marx. Shortly before Marx died in 1883, he wrote a letter to Guesde and Paul Lafargue, both of whom already claimed to represent "Marxist" principles...
etc. - Reformists: the Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party and non-SFIO socialists.
After World War I
- Unlike those in Spain, the Anarchists lost popularity and significance due to the nationalism brought about by World War I and lost the CGTConfédération générale du travailThe General Confederation of Labour is a national trade union center, the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions.It is the largest in terms of votes , and second largest in terms of membership numbers.Its membership decreased to 650,000 members in 1995-96 The General...
majority. They joined the CGT-UConfédération générale du travail unitaireConfédération générale du travail unitaire was a trade union confederation in France. CGTU emerged out of split in the Confédération générale du travail, which had been torn by confrontations between socialists and communists. CGTU was founded at a congress in Saint-Étienne in June 1922, and was...
and later created the CGT-SR. - The SFIO split in the 1920 Tours CongressTours CongressThe Tours Congress was the 18th National Congress of the French Section of the Workers' International, or SFIO, which took place in Tours on 25—30 December 1920...
, where a majority of SFIO members created the French Section of the Communist InternationalFrench Communist PartyThe French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
(the future PCFFrench Communist PartyThe French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
) - The SFIC, which quickly turned into a pro-Stalinist and isolated party (with no alliances), lost many of its original members, and changed only in 1934 (after a fascist attack to the Parliament on February 6, 1934) when it integrated the Popular FrontPopular Front (France)The Popular Front was an alliance of left-wing movements, including the French Communist Party , the French Section of the Workers' International and the Radical and Socialist Party, during the interwar period...
. - The minority of the SFIO who refused to join the Comintern retained the name and, led by Léon BlumLéon BlumAndré Léon Blum was a French politician, usually identified with the moderate left, and three times the Prime Minister of France.-First political experiences:...
, gradually regained ground from the Communists. - The Radical Party, which inherited of the tradition of the French Left and of Radical Republicanism (sharing left-wing traits such as anti-clericalismAnti-clericalismAnti-clericalism is a historical movement that opposes religious institutional power and influence, real or alleged, in all aspects of public and political life, and the involvement of religion in the everyday life of the citizen...
), progressively moved more and more to the mainstream center, being one of the main governing parties between the two World Wars.
The Left was in power during:
- The Cartel des gauchesCartel des GauchesThe Cartel des gauches was the name of the governmental alliance between the Radical-Socialist Party and the socialist French Section of the Workers' International after World War I , which lasted until the end of the Popular Front . The Cartel des gauches twice won general elections, in 1924 and...
(coalition between the Radicals and the SFIO, who not participate in the government), from 1924 to 1926. - From 1932 to the 6 February 1934 crisis (Radicals and independent socialists).
- Under the Popular FrontPopular Front (France)The Popular Front was an alliance of left-wing movements, including the French Communist Party , the French Section of the Workers' International and the Radical and Socialist Party, during the interwar period...
(Radicals, SFIO, PCFFrench Communist PartyThe French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
) in 1936 to 1938 under Socialist Léon BlumLéon BlumAndré Léon Blum was a French politician, usually identified with the moderate left, and three times the Prime Minister of France.-First political experiences:...
and then Radical Camille ChautempsCamille ChautempsCamille Chautemps was a French Radical politician of the Third Republic, three times President of the Council .-Career:Described as "intellectually bereft", Chautemps nevertheless entered politics and became Mayor of Tours in 1912, and a Radical deputy in 1919...
.
The Old Left
- The anarchist movementsAnarchism in FranceThinker Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who grew up during the Restoration was the first self-described anarchist. French anarchists fought in the Spanish Civil War as volunteers in the International Brigades. French anarchism reached its height in the late 19th century...
. - The PCFFrench Communist PartyThe French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
remained an important force (around 28% in elections) despite it being in perpetual opposition after May 1947. From 1956 to the end of the 1970s it was interested in the ideas of "eurocommunismEurocommunismEurocommunism was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties to develop a theory and practice of social transformation that was more relevant in a Western European democracy and less aligned to the influence or control of the Communist Party of the Soviet...
". - The SFIO declined from 23.5% in 1946 to 15% in 1956 and increased only in 1967 (19,0%). It was in government from 1946 to 1951 and 1956-1958. It was transformed in 1971 (congrès d'Épinay) in the Parti SocialisteParti SocialisteParti Socialiste may refer to:*Socialist Party * Parti Socialiste * Swiss Socialist Party...
by reunion of various socialists "clubs", the SFIO,...
After 1959, both parties were in opposition until 1981. They had formed a coalition (with the Party Radical de Gauche) called the "Union de la Gauche" between 1972 to 1978.
The New Left (or Second Left)
The Old Left was contested on its left by the New Left
New Left
The New Left was a term used mainly in the United Kingdom and United States in reference to activists, educators, agitators and others in the 1960s and 1970s who sought to implement a broad range of reforms, in contrast to earlier leftist or Marxist movements that had taken a more vanguardist...
parties including the
- Cornelius Castoriadis's Socialisme ou Barbarie from 1948 to 1965
- Advocates of new social movements (including Michel FoucaultMichel FoucaultMichel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas...
, Gilles DeleuzeGilles DeleuzeGilles Deleuze , was a French philosopher who, from the early 1960s until his death, wrote influentially on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volumes of Capitalism and Schizophrenia: Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus , both co-written with Félix...
, Pierre BourdieuPierre BourdieuPierre Bourdieu was a French sociologist, anthropologist, and philosopher.Starting from the role of economic capital for social positioning, Bourdieu pioneered investigative frameworks and terminologies such as cultural, social, and symbolic capital, and the concepts of habitus, field or location,...
) - Arlette LaguillerArlette LaguillerArlette Yvonne Laguiller is a French Trotskyist politician. Since 1973, she has been the spokeswoman and the best known leader and perennial candidate of the Lutte Ouvrière political party...
's Workers' StruggleWorkers' StruggleLutte Ouvrière is the usual name under which the Union Communiste , a French Trotskyist political party, is known, after the name of its weekly paper. Arlette Laguiller has been its spokeswoman since 1973 and has run in each presidential election, but Robert Barcia was its founder and central... - The Revolutionary Communist LeagueRevolutionary Communist League (France)See Revolutionary Communist League for the other Ligue communiste révolutionnaire.The Revolutionary Communist League was a French democratic revolutionary socialist political party. It was the French section of the Fourth International...
- Others components of the New Left included the environmentalists (who would eventually found The GreensThe Greens (France)The Greens were a Green political party to the centre-left of the political spectrum in France. They had officially been in existence since 1984, but their spiritual roots could be traced as far back as René Dumont’s candidacy for the presidency in 1974...
in 1982)
However, the emblem of the New Left was the Unified Socialist Party
Unified Socialist Party (France)
The Unified Socialist Party was a socialist political party in France, founded on April 3, 1960. It was originally led by Édouard Depreux , and by Michel Rocard .- History :...
, or PSU.
The Moderate Centre-Left
- The Radical Party, despite some ambiguities (support to Pierre Mendès-FrancePierre Mendès-FrancePierre Mendès France was a French politician. He descended from a Portuguese Jewish family that moved to France in the sixteenth century.-Third Republic and World War II:...
's center-left Republican FrontRepublican Front (France)The Republican Front was a French center-left coalition which won the 1956 legislative election. In the context of the Algerian War, behind Pierre Mendès-France, it gathered the French Section of the Workers' International , the Radical Party, the Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance...
during the 1956 legislative elections), finally embraced economic liberalismEconomic liberalismEconomic liberalism is the ideological belief in giving all people economic freedom, and as such granting people with more basis to control their own lives and make their own mistakes. It is an economic philosophy that supports and promotes individual liberty and choice in economic matters and...
and slid to the center-right. But in 1972, left-wing Radicals split to form the Left Radical PartyLeft Radical PartyThe Radical Party of the Left is a minor social-liberal, and in opposition to its common understanding of its name, a moderate centre-left political party in France advocating radicalism, secularism to its french extend known as laïcité, progressivism, pro-Europeanism, individual freedom and...
.
After the end of the Cold War
- In 1993, Jean-Pierre ChevènementJean-Pierre ChevènementJean-Pierre Chevènement is a French politician. He was Minister of Defense from 1988 to 1991 and Minister of the Interior from 1997 to 2000. He was a presidential candidate in 2002 and since 2008 has been a member of the Senate....
left the PS to form the Citizen and Republican MovementCitizen and Republican MovementThe Citizen and Republican Movement is a political party in France. The party replaced, in 2002, the Citizens' Movement founded by Jean-Pierre Chevènement, who left the Socialist Party in 1993 due to his opposition to the Persian Gulf War and to the Maastricht Treaty...
(MRC), a left-wing euroscepticEuroScepticEuroSceptic is the second album of British singer Jack Lucien. It was released in October 2009.Due to being an album influenced by Europop, it features songs with parts in different languages...
party attached to the tradition of republicanism and universalismUniversalismUniversalism in its primary meaning refers to religious, theological, and philosophical concepts with universal application or applicability...
(secularismSecularismSecularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...
, equal opportunities, opposition to multiculturalismMulticulturalismMulticulturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
). - In 1994, communist and socialist dissidents created the Convention for a Progressive AlternativeConvention for a Progressive AlternativeThe Convention for a Progressive Alternative is a French left-wing political party founded in 1994.It was founded by reformist Communists , Socialists, Trotskyists and others...
, a party with a eco-socialist platform, and they have 1 deputy, 8 mayors, and some councillors. They remain present in the Haute-VienneHaute-VienneHaute-Vienne is a French department named after the Vienne River. It is one of three departments that together constitute the French region of Limousin.The chief and largest city is Limoges...
and Val-de-MarneVal-de-MarneVal-de-Marne is a French department, named after the Marne River, located in the Île-de-France region. The department is situated to the southeast of the city of Paris.- Geography :...
. - In the 1990s and 2000s, some parties continued the inheritance of the PSU like Les Alternatifs, or ANPAG.
- The New Anticapitalist PartyNew Anticapitalist PartyThe New Anticapitalist Party is a French political party founded in February 2009. Its name was originally intended to be temporary; a vote on the name being held at the founding congress on 6–8 February 2009, where NPA won over "Revolutionary Anticapitalist Party" with 53% of the vote.The party ...
is founded in an attempt to unify the fractured movements of the French radical Left, and attract new activists drawing on the relative combined strength of far-left parties in presidential elections in 2002, where they achieved 10.44% of the vote, and 2007 (7.07%).
The Right
The right-wing has been divided into three broad families by historian René RémondRené Rémond
-Biography:Born in Lons-le-Saunier, Rémond was the Secretary General of Jeunesses étudiantes Catholiques and a member of the International YCS Center of Documentation and Information in Paris, presently the International Secretariat of International Young Catholic Students The author of books on...
.
Legitimists
Counter-revolutionaries who opposed all change since the French Revolution. Today, they are located on the far-right of the French political spectrum.These included:
- The ultra-royalists during the Bourbon RestorationBourbon RestorationThe Bourbon Restoration is the name given to the period following the successive events of the French Revolution , the end of the First Republic , and then the forcible end of the First French Empire under Napoleon – when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the...
- The Action françaiseAction FrançaiseThe Action Française , founded in 1898, is a French Monarchist counter-revolutionary movement and periodical founded by Maurice Pujo and Henri Vaugeois and whose principal ideologist was Charles Maurras...
monarchist movement - The supporters of the Vichy regime's Révolution nationaleRévolution nationaleThe Révolution nationale was the official ideological name under which the Vichy regime established by Marshal Philippe Pétain in July 1940 presented its program...
- The activists of the OASOrganisation armée secrèteThe Organisation de l'armée secrète was a short-lived, French far-right nationalist militant and underground organization during the Algerian War . The OAS used armed struggle in an attempt to prevent Algeria's independence...
during the Algerian War (1954–1962) - Most components of Jean-Marie Le PenJean-Marie Le PenJean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than...
's National Front - Philippe de VilliersPhilippe de VilliersViscount Philippe Le Jolis de Villiers de Saintignon, known as Philippe de Villiers, born on 25 March 1949, is a French politician. He was the Mouvement pour la France nominee for the French presidential election of 2007. He received 2.23% of the vote, putting him in sixth place. As only the top...
' conservative Movement for FranceMovement for FranceThe Movement for France , abbreviated to MPF, is a French conservative and eurosceptic political party, founded on 20 November 1994, with a marked regional stronghold in the Vendée. It is led by Philippe de Villiers, once communications minister under Jacques Chirac.The party is considered...
Orleanists
Orleanists had rallied the Republic at the end of the 19th century and advocated economic liberalismEconomic liberalism
Economic liberalism is the ideological belief in giving all people economic freedom, and as such granting people with more basis to control their own lives and make their own mistakes. It is an economic philosophy that supports and promotes individual liberty and choice in economic matters and...
(referred to in French simply as libéralisme). Today, they are broadly classified as centre-right or centrist parties.
These included:
- The right-wing of the Radical Party
- The Democratic and Socialist Union of the ResistanceDemocratic and Socialist Union of the ResistanceThe Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance was a French political party found at the Liberation and in activity during the Fourth Republic...
- The Christian-democratic Popular Republican MovementPopular Republican MovementThe Popular Republican Movement was a French Christian democratic party of the Fourth Republic...
(MRP) - Valéry Giscard d'EstaingValéry Giscard d'EstaingValéry Marie René Georges Giscard d'Estaing is a French centre-right politician who was President of the French Republic from 1974 until 1981...
's Independent RepublicansIndependent RepublicansThe Independent Republicans were a French liberal-conservative political group founded in 1962, which became a political party in 1966 . The leader was Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.... - The Union for a French Democracy
Today, a large majority of the politicians of Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
's ruling Union for a Popular Movement
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right political party in France, and one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the center-left Socialist Party...
can be classified in this family.
Bonapartists
These included:- Charles de GaulleCharles de GaulleCharles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
's various parties: first the Rally of the French PeopleRally of the French PeopleThe Rally of the French People was a French political party, led by Charles de Gaulle.-Foundation:...
,
then the Union of Democrats for the Republic
- But also Boulangisme or Poujadisme
Today
The Gaullist UDR was then transformed by Jacques ChiracJacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
in the Rally for the Republic
Rally for the Republic
The Rally for the Republic , was a French right-wing political party. Originating from the Union of Democrats for the Republic , it was founded by Jacques Chirac in 1976 and presented itself as the heir of Gaullism...
(RPR) in 1976, a neo-Gaullist party which embraced economic liberalism.
In 2002 the RPR became the Union for the Presidential Majority and then the Union for a Popular Movement
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right political party in France, and one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the center-left Socialist Party...
in an attempt to unify the French conservatives together with a minority of the Union for French Democracy
Union for French Democracy
The Union for French Democracy was a French centrist political party. It was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to counterbalance the Gaullist preponderance over the right. This name was chosen due to the title of Giscard d'Estaing's...
(UDF).
In 2007, a section of the remaining UDF, headed by François Bayrou
François Bayrou
François Bayrou is a French centrist politician, president of Union for French Democracy since 1998 and was a candidate in the 2002 and 2007 French presidential elections. In the first round, he received 18.6% of the vote, finishing in 3rd place and therefore was eliminated from the race....
, refused to align themselves on Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
and created the MoDem
Modem
A modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...
in an attempt to make space for a center-right party.
In conclusion, Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than...
managed to unify most of the French far-right in the National Front, created in 1972 in the aftermaths of the Algerian War, which succeeded in gaining influence starting in the 1980s.
Residual monarchists movements, inheritors of Charles Maurras
Charles Maurras
Charles-Marie-Photius Maurras was a French author, poet, and critic. He was a leader and principal thinker of Action Française, a political movement that was monarchist, anti-parliamentarist, and counter-revolutionary. Maurras' ideas greatly influenced National Catholicism and "nationalisme...
' Action française
Action Française
The Action Française , founded in 1898, is a French Monarchist counter-revolutionary movement and periodical founded by Maurice Pujo and Henri Vaugeois and whose principal ideologist was Charles Maurras...
, also managed to survive, although many of them joined Le Pen's FN in the 1980s. Some neo-fascists who considered Le Pen to be too moderate broke away in 1974 to form the Parti des forces nouvelles
Parti des forces nouvelles
Parti des forces nouvelles or Party of New Forces was a French far right political party formed in November 1974 from the Comité faire front, a group of anti-Jean-Marie Le Pen dissidents who had split from the National Front .-Development:...
, which maintained close links to the far-right students' union Groupe Union Défense.
Another important theoretical influence in the far-right appeared in the 1980s with Alain de Benoist
Alain de Benoist
Alain de Benoist is a French academic, philosopher, a founder of the Nouvelle Droite and head of the French think tank GRECE. Benoist is a critic of liberalism, free markets and egalitarianism.-Biography:...
's Nouvelle Droite
Nouvelle Droite
Nouvelle Droite is a school of political thought founded largely on the works of Alain de Benoist and GRECE .-Etymology and history:...
movement, organized into the GRECE.
Despite Le Pen's success in the 2002 presidential election
French presidential election, 2002
The 2002 French presidential election consisted of a first round election on 21 April 2002, and a runoff election between the top two candidates on 5 May 2002. This presidential contest attracted a greater than usual amount of international attention because of Le Pen's unexpected appearance in...
,
his party has been weakened by Bruno Mégret
Bruno Mégret
Bruno Mégret is a French Far-right politician. He is the leader of the Mouvement National Républicain political party, but retired in 2008 from political action.-Youth and studies:...
's spin-out, leading to the creation of the National Republican Movement
National Republican Movement
The National Republican Movement is a French nationalist political party, created by Bruno Mégret with former Club de l'Horloge alumni, Yvan Blot and Jean-Yves Le Gallou, as a split from Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front on January 24, 1999.Although political observers have considered the MNR to...
, as well as by the concurrence of Philippe de Villiers
Philippe de Villiers
Viscount Philippe Le Jolis de Villiers de Saintignon, known as Philippe de Villiers, born on 25 March 1949, is a French politician. He was the Mouvement pour la France nominee for the French presidential election of 2007. He received 2.23% of the vote, putting him in sixth place. As only the top...
' Movement for France
Movement for France
The Movement for France , abbreviated to MPF, is a French conservative and eurosceptic political party, founded on 20 November 1994, with a marked regional stronghold in the Vendée. It is led by Philippe de Villiers, once communications minister under Jacques Chirac.The party is considered...
, and also by the internal struggles concerning Le Pen's forthcoming succession.
The Fifth Republic (1958–1981)
During the Fifth RepublicFrench Fifth Republic
The Fifth Republic is the fifth and current republican constitution of France, introduced on 4 October 1958. The Fifth Republic emerged from the collapse of the French Fourth Republic, replacing the prior parliamentary government with a semi-presidential system...
, founded in 1958 amid the troubles brought by the Algerian War (1954–62), France was ruled by successive right-wing administrations until 1981.
The successive governments generally applied the Gaullist
Gaullism
Gaullism is a French political ideology based on the thought and action of Resistance leader then president Charles de Gaulle.-Foreign policy:...
program of national independence, and modernization in a dirigiste
Dirigisme
Dirigisme is an economy in which the government exerts strong directive influence. While the term has occasionally been applied to centrally planned economies, where the state effectively controls both production and allocation of resources , it originally had neither of these meanings when...
fashion.
The political instability characteristic of the Fourth Republic was gone. The far-right extremists who had threatened military coups over the question of French Algeria largely receded after Algeria was granted independence. The French Communist Party
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
's image gradually became less radical. Politics largely turned into a Gaullists vs left-wing opposition.
The Gaullist government, however, was criticized for its heavy-handedness: while elections were free, the state had a monopoly on radio and TV broadcasting and sought to have its point of view on events imposed (this monopoly was not absolute, however, since there were radio stations transmitting from nearby countries specifically for the benefit of the French).
Although Gaullism, which had gained legitimacy during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, initially also attracted several left-wing individuals, Gaullism in government became decidedly conservative.
In 1962, de Gaulle had the French citizens vote in a referendum concerning the election of the president at universal suffrage
French presidential election referendum, 1962
A referendum on the direct election of the President was held in France on 28 October 1962. It was approved by 62.3% of voters with a 77.0% turnout...
, something which had been discredited since Napoleon III's 1851 coup.
3/5 of the voters approved however the referendum, and thereafter the President of the French Republic
President of the French Republic
The President of the French Republic colloquially referred to in English as the President of France, is France's elected Head of State....
was elected at universal suffrage, giving him increased authority on the Parliament. De Gaulle won the 1965 presidential election
French presidential election, 1965
The 1965 French presidential election was the first presidential election by direct universal suffrage of the Fifth Republic. It was also the first presidential election by direct universal suffrage since the Second Republic in 1848. It was won by incumbent president Charles de Gaulle who resigned...
, opposed on his left by François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
who had taken the lead of the Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left
Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left
The Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left was a conglomerate of French left-wing non-Communist forces. It was founded to support François Mitterrand's candidature at the 1965 presidential election and to couter-balance the Communist preponderance over the French left...
, a coalition of most left-wing parties (apart from the French Communist Party
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
, then led by Waldeck Rochet
Waldeck Rochet
Waldeck Rochet was a French communist politician.-Early life and career:...
who did call to vote for Mitterrand).
In May 1968, a series of worker strikes and student riots rocked France. These did not, however, result in an immediate change of government, with a right-wing administration being triumphantly reelected in the snap election of June 1968
French legislative election, 1968
- National Assembly by Parliamentary Group:...
.
However, in 1969 the French electorate turned down a referendum on the reform of the French Senate
French constitutional referendum, 1969
A constitutional referendum was held in France on 27 April 1969. The reforms would have led to government decentralization and changes to the Senate...
proposed by de Gaulle. Since the latter had always declared that in the eventuality of a "NO" to a referendum he would resign, the referendum was also a plebiscite.
Thus, the rejection of the reform by more than 52% of the voters was widely considered to be mostly motivated by weariness with de Gaulle, and ultimately provoked his resignation that year.
May '68 and its aftermaths saw the occupation of the LIP factory in Besançon
Besançon
Besançon , is the capital and principal city of the Franche-Comté region in eastern France. It had a population of about 237,000 inhabitants in the metropolitan area in 2008...
, one of the major social conflict of the 1970s, during which the CFDT and the Unified Socialist Party
Unified Socialist Party (France)
The Unified Socialist Party was a socialist political party in France, founded on April 3, 1960. It was originally led by Édouard Depreux , and by Michel Rocard .- History :...
, of which Pierre Mendès-France
Pierre Mendès-France
Pierre Mendès France was a French politician. He descended from a Portuguese Jewish family that moved to France in the sixteenth century.-Third Republic and World War II:...
was a member, theorized workers' self-management
Workers' self-management
Worker self-management is a form of workplace decision-making in which the workers themselves agree on choices instead of an owner or traditional supervisor telling workers what to do, how to do it and where to do it...
.
Apart of the PSU, the autonomist movement, inspired by Italian operaismo, made its first appearance on the political scene.
Georges Pompidou
Georges Pompidou
Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou was a French politician. He was Prime Minister of France from 1962 to 1968, holding the longest tenure in this position, and later President of the French Republic from 1969 until his death in 1974.-Biography:...
, de Gaulle's Prime Minister, was elected in 1969
French presidential election, 1969
The 1969 French presidential election took place on 1 June and 15 June 1969. It occurred due to the resignation of President Charles de Gaulle on 28 April 1969. Indeed, De Gaulle had decided to consult the voters by referendum about regionalisation and the reform of the Senate, and he had announced...
, remaining President until his death in 1974.
In 1972, 3/5 of the French approved by referendum
French European Economic Community enlargement referendum, 1972
A referendum on the enlargement of the EEC was held in France on 23 April 1972. Voters were asked whether they approved of Denmark, the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom joining the EEC. The proposals were approved by 68.3% of voters, with a turnout of 60.2%.-Results:...
the enlargement of the European Economic Community
European Economic Community
The European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) The European Economic Community (EEC) (also known as the Common Market in the English-speaking world, renamed the European Community (EC) in 1993The information in this article primarily covers the EEC's time as an independent...
(CEE) to the United Kingdom, Denmark, Ireland, and Norway.
After Pompidou's sudden death, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry Marie René Georges Giscard d'Estaing is a French centre-right politician who was President of the French Republic from 1974 until 1981...
managed to overhaul the remaining Gaullist barons — with the help of Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
—, and won the subsequent election
French presidential election, 1974
Presidential elections were held in :France in 1974, following the death of President Georges Pompidou. They went to a second round, and were won by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing by a margin of 1.6%...
against François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
on the left.
Giscard transformed the ORTF, the state organism in charge of media, and created several different channels, including Radio France
Radio France
Radio France is a French public service radio broadcaster.-Mission:Radio France's two principal missions are:* To create and expand the programming on all of their stations; and...
.
However, it was not until François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
's accession to the Élysée Palace
Élysée Palace
The Élysée Palace is the official residence of the President of the French Republic, containing his office, and is where the Council of Ministers meets. It is located near the Champs-Élysées in Paris....
in 1981 that media were liberalized.
The Fifth Republic (1981–1995)
In 1981, François MitterrandFrançois Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
, a Socialist, was elected president
French presidential election, 1981
The French presidential election of 1981 took place on 10 May 1981, giving the presidency of France to François Mitterrand, the first Socialist president of the Fifth Republic....
, on a program of far-reaching reforms (110 Propositions for France
110 Propositions for France
110 Propositions for France was the name of the Socialist Party's program for the 1981 presidential election during which the Socialist Party's candidate, François Mitterrand, was elected by 51.76% of the people...
). This was enabled by the 1972 Common Program between the PS, the PRG
Left Radical Party
The Radical Party of the Left is a minor social-liberal, and in opposition to its common understanding of its name, a moderate centre-left political party in France advocating radicalism, secularism to its french extend known as laïcité, progressivism, pro-Europeanism, individual freedom and...
and the PCF
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
— which had remained, just as in Italy
Politics of Italy
The politics of Italy is conducted through a parliamentary, democratic republic with a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised collectively by the Council of Ministers, which is led by the President of the Council of Ministers, referred to as "Presidente del Consiglio" in Italian...
, a strong party through-out the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
.
After securing a majority in parliament through a snap election
French legislative election, 1981
French legislative elections took place on 14 June and 21 June 1981 to elect the 7th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.On 10 May 1981 François Mitterrand was elected President of France. He became the first Socialist to win this post under universal suffrage...
, his government ran a program of social and economic reforms:
- social policies:
- abolition of the death penaltyCapital punishment in FranceCapital punishment was practiced in France from the Middle Ages until 1977, when the last execution took place by guillotine, being the only legal method since the French Revolution. The last person to be executed in France was Hamida Djandoubi, who was put to death in September 1977. The death...
; - removal of legislation criminalizing certain homosexualHomosexualityHomosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
behaviors: lowering of the age of consent for homosexual sex to that for heterosexual sex (since the French RevolutionFrench RevolutionThe French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, France had never criminalized homosexuality between adults in private ); - liberalization of media
- creation of a solidarity tax on wealthSolidarity tax on wealthThe solidarity tax on wealth is an annual direct wealth tax on those in France having assets in excess of €800,000, . It was one of the Socialist Party's 1981 electoral program's measures, 110 Propositions for France...
(ISF) and reform of the inheritance taxInheritance taxAn inheritance tax or estate tax is a levy paid by a person who inherits money or property or a tax on the estate of a person who has died...
- abolition of the death penalty
- economic policies:
- the government embarked on a wave of nationalizations;
- the duration of the legal workweek was set to 39 hours, instead of the previous 40 hours.
- increase of the SMICSMICSMIC may refer to:*The SMIC Private School, in Shanghai*Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, in Shanghai*Minimum wages in France...
minimum wages
- institutional reforms:
- repealing of exceptional judicial procedures (courts-martialCourt-martialA court-martial is a military court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment.Most militaries maintain a court-martial system to try cases in which a breach of...
in peace-time, etc.)
- repealing of exceptional judicial procedures (courts-martial
However, in 1983, high inflation and economic woes forced a dramatic turnaround with respect to economic policies, known as rigueur (rigor) – the Socialist-Communist government then embarked on policies of fiscal and spending restraint.
Though the nationalizations were subsequently reversed by both subsequent left-wing and right-wing governments, the social reforms undertaken have remained standing.
Furthermore, the end of the Trente Glorieuses
Trente Glorieuses
Les Trente Glorieuses refers to the thirty years from 1945-1975 following the end of the Second World War in France. The name was first used by the French demographer Jean Fourastié...
(Thirty Glorious) period of growth witnesses the beginning of a structural unemployment
Structural unemployment
Structural unemployment is a form of unemployment resulting from a mismatch between demand in the labour market and the skills and locations of the workers seeking employment...
, which became an important political issue.
Since the 1980s, unemployment has remained permanently high, at about 10% of the population, regardless of the policies applied to fight it.
In 1986, Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
's neo-Gaullist Rally for the Republic
Rally for the Republic
The Rally for the Republic , was a French right-wing political party. Originating from the Union of Democrats for the Republic , it was founded by Jacques Chirac in 1976 and presented itself as the heir of Gaullism...
(RPR) party won the legislative election
French legislative election, 1986
The French legislative elections took place on 16 March 1986 to elect the 8th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. Contrary to other legislative elections of the Fifth Republic, the electoral system used was that of Party-list proportional representation.Since the 1981 election of François...
.
For the first time in the Fifth Republic, a left-wing President was forced to compose with a right-wing Prime minister, leading to the first cohabitation
Cohabitation (government)
Cohabitation in government occurs in semi-presidential systems, such as France's system, when the President is from a different political party than the majority of the members of parliament. It occurs because such a system forces the president to name a premier that will be acceptable to the...
. Although many commentators were surprised at the time, and considered it to be an institutional crisis, some claiming the Fifth Republic could not accommodate itself of such rivalry at the head of the state, cohabitation repeated itself after the 1993 elections
French legislative election, 1993
French legislative elections took place on 21 and 28 March 1993 to elect the 10th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic.Since 1988, President François Mitterrand and his Socialist cabinets had relied on a relative parliamentary majority. Without the support of the Communists, Prime minister...
, when the RPR again won the elections, and then after the 1997 elections
French legislative election, 1997
French legislative election took place on 25 May and 1 June 1997 to elect the 11th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. It was the consequence of President Jacques Chirac's decision to call the legislative election one year before the deadline....
, when the Socialist Party won, leading to the constitution of Lionel Jospin
Lionel Jospin
Lionel Jospin is a French politician, who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002.Jospin was the Socialist Party candidate for President of France in the elections of 1995 and 2002. He was narrowly defeated in the final runoff election by Jacques Chirac in 1995...
's Plural Left government while Chirac was only at the beginning of his first presidential term.
The tradition in periods of "cohabitation" (a President of one party, prime minister of another) is for the President to exercise the primary role in foreign and security policy, with the dominant role in domestic policy falling to the prime minister and his government. Jospin stated, however, that he would not a priori leave any domain exclusively to the President, as that was a tradition issued from de Gaulle.
Since then, the government alternated between a left-wing coalition (composed of the French Socialist Party (PS), the French Communist Party
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
(PCF) and more recently Les Verts
The Greens (France)
The Greens were a Green political party to the centre-left of the political spectrum in France. They had officially been in existence since 1984, but their spiritual roots could be traced as far back as René Dumont’s candidacy for the presidency in 1974...
, the Greens) and a right-wing coalition (composed of Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
's Rally for the Republic
Rally for the Republic
The Rally for the Republic , was a French right-wing political party. Originating from the Union of Democrats for the Republic , it was founded by Jacques Chirac in 1976 and presented itself as the heir of Gaullism...
(RPR), later replaced by the Union for a Popular Movement
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right political party in France, and one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the center-left Socialist Party...
(UMP), and the Union for French Democracy
Union for French Democracy
The Union for French Democracy was a French centrist political party. It was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to counterbalance the Gaullist preponderance over the right. This name was chosen due to the title of Giscard d'Estaing's...
, UDF).
Those two coalitions are fairly stable; there have been none of the mid-term coalition reorganizations and governments frequently overthrown which were commonplace under the Fourth Republic.
The 1980s and 1990s saw also the rise of Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than...
's National Front (FN), a far-right party which blames immigration, more particularly immigration from North African countries such as Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
, for increased unemployment
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
and crime.
The social situation in the French suburbs
Social situation in the French suburbs
Outside of Paris are large blocks of government-built public housing, known as banlieues. The banlieues house hundreds of thousands of individuals of North African descent...
(banlieues: literally, "suburbs", but in France a euphemism for large suburban housing projects for the poor, with a high proportion of the population of North African descent) still have to be successfully tackled.
Jean-Marie Le Pen's relative success at the French Presidential election, 2002 has been attributed in part to concerns about juvenile criminality.
Massive general strikes followed by all the trade-unions were triggered in November–December 1995, paralyzing France, in protest against the Juppé plan
Alain Juppé
Alain Marie Juppé is a French politician currently serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He also served as Prime Minister of France from 1995 to 1997 under President Jacques Chirac and the Minister of Defence and Veterans Affairs from 2010 to 2011...
of libéral (in French, free market) reforms.
These strikes were generally considered a turning point in the French social movement.
It remains to be seen how much of these reforms will now be enacted by Sarkozy's first government, as Sarkozy was elected President on a similar platform in May 2007.
The Fifth Republic (1995–2011)
During his first two years in office, President Jacques ChiracJacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
's prime minister was Alain Juppé
Alain Juppé
Alain Marie Juppé is a French politician currently serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He also served as Prime Minister of France from 1995 to 1997 under President Jacques Chirac and the Minister of Defence and Veterans Affairs from 2010 to 2011...
, who served contemporaneously as leader of Chirac's neo-Gaullist Rally for the Republic
Rally for the Republic
The Rally for the Republic , was a French right-wing political party. Originating from the Union of Democrats for the Republic , it was founded by Jacques Chirac in 1976 and presented itself as the heir of Gaullism...
(RPR). Chirac and Juppé benefited from a very large, if rather unruly, majority in the National Assembly (470 out of 577 seats).
Mindful that the government might have to take politically costly decisions in advance of the legislative elections planned for spring 1998 in order to ensure that France met the Maastricht criteria
Maastricht Treaty
The Maastricht Treaty was signed on 7 February 1992 by the members of the European Community in Maastricht, Netherlands. On 9–10 December 1991, the same city hosted the European Council which drafted the treaty...
for the single currency of the EU
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
, Chirac decided in April 1997 to call early elections
French legislative election, 1997
French legislative election took place on 25 May and 1 June 1997 to elect the 11th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. It was the consequence of President Jacques Chirac's decision to call the legislative election one year before the deadline....
.
The Left, led by Socialist Party
Socialist Party (France)
The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in France and the largest party of the French centre-left. It is one of the two major contemporary political parties in France, along with the center-right Union for a Popular Movement...
leader Lionel Jospin
Lionel Jospin
Lionel Jospin is a French politician, who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002.Jospin was the Socialist Party candidate for President of France in the elections of 1995 and 2002. He was narrowly defeated in the final runoff election by Jacques Chirac in 1995...
, whom Chirac had defeated in the 1995 presidential race
French presidential election, 1995
Presidential elections took place in France on 23 April and 7 May 1995, to elect the fifth president of the Fifth Republic.The incumbent Socialist president, François Mitterrand, did not stand for a third term. He was 78, had cancer, and his party had lost the previous legislative election in a...
, unexpectedly won a solid National Assembly majority (319 seats, with 289 required for an absolute majority). President Chirac named Jospin prime minister on June 2, and Jospin went on to form a Plural Left government composed primarily of Socialist ministers, along with some ministers from allied parties of the left, such as the Communist Party
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
and the Greens
The Greens (France)
The Greens were a Green political party to the centre-left of the political spectrum in France. They had officially been in existence since 1984, but their spiritual roots could be traced as far back as René Dumont’s candidacy for the presidency in 1974...
.
Jospin stated his support for continued European integration and his intention to keep France on the path towards Economic and Monetary Union, albeit with greater attention to social concerns.
Chirac and Jospin worked together, for the most part, in the foreign affairs field with representatives of the presidency and the government pursuing a single, agreed French policy. Their "cohabitation" arrangement was the longest-lasting in the history of the Fifth Republic.
The right in power 2002–present
However, it ended subsequent to the legislative elections that followed Chirac's decisive defeat of Jospin (who failed even to make it through to the runoff) in the 2002 presidential electionFrench presidential election, 2002
The 2002 French presidential election consisted of a first round election on 21 April 2002, and a runoff election between the top two candidates on 5 May 2002. This presidential contest attracted a greater than usual amount of international attention because of Le Pen's unexpected appearance in...
.
This led to President Chirac's appointment of Jean-Pierre Raffarin
Jean-Pierre Raffarin
Jean-Pierre Raffarin is a French conservative politician and senator for Vienne.Jean-Pierre Raffarin served as the Prime Minister of France from 6 May 2002 to 31 May 2005, resigning after France's rejection of the referendum on the European Union draft constitution. However, after Raffarin...
(UMP
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right political party in France, and one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the center-left Socialist Party...
) as the new prime minister.
On May 29, 2005, French voters in the referendum
French referendum on the European Constitution
The French referendum on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe was held on 29 May 2005 to decide whether France should ratify the proposed Constitution of the European Union...
on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe
Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe
The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe , , was an unratified international treaty intended to create a consolidated constitution for the European Union...
turned down the proposed charter by a wide margin.
This was generally regarded as a rebuke to Chirac and his government as well as the PS leadership, the majority save for the leftist faction and Laurent Fabius
Laurent Fabius
Laurent Fabius is a French Socialist politician. He served as Prime Minister from 17 July 1984 to 20 March 1986. He was 37 years old when he was appointed and is, so far, the youngest Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic.-Early life:...
— had supported the proposed constitution.
Two days later, Raffarin resigned and Chirac appointed Dominique de Villepin
Dominique de Villepin
Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin is a French politician who served as the Prime Minister of France from 31 May 2005 to 17 May 2007....
, formerly Foreign Minister as Prime Minister of France.
An enduring force is Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than...
's National Front
Front National
Front National can mean:* Front National , a French political party* Front National , a World War II French Resistance group* Front National , a Belgian political party...
party, whose anti-immigration, isolationist policies have been described by critics as inspired by xenophobia
Xenophobia
Xenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...
. Le Pen's survival into the runoff of 2002 had many observers worried this time, but in the 2007 first round
French presidential election, 2007
The 2007 French presidential election, the ninth of the Fifth French Republic was held to elect the successor to Jacques Chirac as president of France for a five-year term.The winner, decided on 5 and 6 May 2007, was Nicolas Sarkozy...
Le Pen finished a distant fourth.
The February 23, 2005 French law on colonialism
French law on colonialism
The February 23, 2005, French law on colonialism was an act passed by the Union for a Popular Movement conservative majority, which imposed on high-school teachers to teach the "positive values" of colonialism to their students...
was met by a public uproar on the left-wing. Voted by the UMP majority, it was charged with advocating historical revisionism
Historical revisionism (negationism)
Historical revisionism is either the legitimate scholastic re-examination of existing knowledge about a historical event, or the illegitimate distortion of the historical record such that certain events appear in a more or less favourable light. For the former, i.e. the academic pursuit, see...
, and after long debates and international opposition (from Abdelaziz Bouteflika
Abdelaziz Bouteflika
Abdelaziz Bouteflika is the ninth President of Algeria. He has been in office since 1999. He continued emergency rule until 24 February 2011, and presided over the end of the bloody Algerian Civil War in 2002...
or Aimé Césaire
Aimé Césaire
Aimé Fernand David Césaire was a French poet, author and politician from Martinique. He was "one of the founders of the négritude movement in Francophone literature".-Student, educator, and poet:...
, founder of the Négritude
Négritude
Négritude is a literary and ideological movement, developed by francophone black intellectuals, writers, and politiciansin France in the 1930s by a group that included the future Senegalese President Léopold Sédar Senghor, Martinican poet Aimé Césaire, and the Guianan Léon Damas.The Négritude...
movement), was repealed by Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
himself.
In Autumn 2005, civil unrest
2005 civil unrest in France
The 2005 civil unrest in France of October and November was a series of riots by mostly Muslim North African youths in Paris and other French cities, involving mainly the burning of cars and public buildings at night starting on 27 October 2005 in Clichy-sous-Bois...
erupted in a number of lower classes suburbs
Social situation in the French suburbs
Outside of Paris are large blocks of government-built public housing, known as banlieues. The banlieues house hundreds of thousands of individuals of North African descent...
due to the violence of the police. As a result, the government invoked a state of emergency
State of emergency
A state of emergency is a governmental declaration that may suspend some normal functions of the executive, legislative and judicial powers, alert citizens to change their normal behaviours, or order government agencies to implement emergency preparedness plans. It can also be used as a rationale...
which lasted until January 2006.
In 2006, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin
Dominique de Villepin
Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin is a French politician who served as the Prime Minister of France from 31 May 2005 to 17 May 2007....
enacted amendments that established a First Employment Contract
First Employment Contract
The contrat première embauche was a new form of employment contract pushed in spring 2006 in France by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin...
, known as the CPE, a special kind of employment contract under which workers under the age of 26 could be hired and fired liberally.
Proponents of the measure argued that French workforce laws, which put the burden of proof on the employer for dismissing employees, dissuaded employers from hiring new employees; according to them, this is one reason while the unemployment rate of those under 26 is 23% and that of youngsters from some lower classes neighbourhoods
Banlieue
In francophone areas, banlieues are the "outskirts" of a city: the zone around a city that is under the city's rule.Banlieues are translated as "suburbs", as these are also residential areas on the outer edge of a city, but the connotations of the term "banlieue" in France can be different from...
as high as 40%, and not the refusal of exploitation to enrich the wealthy class.
However, the plan backfired, with criticism both on the way the law was passed (using an exceptional legislative procedure) and on the law itself, which was criticized both for weakening workers' rights in general, and for singling out the young disfavourably instead of attempting to cure more general issues. Following the 2006 protests against the CPE, the government had to withdraw the legislation.
Following from these events, Villepin lost all hopes of winning the presidency, and his government no longer tried to enact reforms.
The issue of liberalism or socialism
One of the great questions of current French politics is that of libéralisme — that is, economic liberalismEconomic liberalism
Economic liberalism is the ideological belief in giving all people economic freedom, and as such granting people with more basis to control their own lives and make their own mistakes. It is an economic philosophy that supports and promotes individual liberty and choice in economic matters and...
, individualism society and the market system, as opposed to government intervention in the economy. Broadly speaking, supporters of libéralisme want to let the forces of the free market
Free market
A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...
operate with less regulation. For example, they want little regulation of the workforce and repeal of French laws setting a 35-hour work week rather than leaving this to contract negotiations. Critics of libéralisme argue that governmental intervention is necessary for the welfare of workers; they point out that great gains in workers' rights were historically achieved by government intervention and social mobilization, as during the Popular Front
Popular Front (France)
The Popular Front was an alliance of left-wing movements, including the French Communist Party , the French Section of the Workers' International and the Radical and Socialist Party, during the interwar period...
. Similarly, proponents of libéralisme favour free markets and the free movement of goods, which critics contend benefit the wealthy class at the expense of the ordinary worker.
According to historian René Rémond
René Rémond
-Biography:Born in Lons-le-Saunier, Rémond was the Secretary General of Jeunesses étudiantes Catholiques and a member of the International YCS Center of Documentation and Information in Paris, presently the International Secretariat of International Young Catholic Students The author of books on...
's famous classification of the right-wings in France, this libérale tradition belongs to the Orleanist
Orléanist
The Orléanists were a French right-wing/center-right party which arose out of the French Revolution. It governed France 1830-1848 in the "July Monarchy" of king Louis Philippe. It is generally seen as a transitional period dominated by the bourgeoisie and the conservative Orleanist doctrine in...
inheritance, while Gaullists inherited from Bonapartism
Bonapartism
Bonapartism is often defined as a political expression in the vocabulary of Marxism and Leninism, deriving from the career of Napoleon Bonaparte. Karl Marx was a student of Jacobinism and the French Revolution as well as a contemporary critic of the Second Republic and Second Empire...
and a tradition of state intervention issued from the National Council of Resistance (CNR)'s welfare state
Welfare state
A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those...
program after the war. However, neo-Gaullists have since rallied economic liberalism, with the result that modern French conservatives — such as the UMP
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right political party in France, and one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the center-left Socialist Party...
, or before that the RPR
Rally for the Republic
The Rally for the Republic , was a French right-wing political party. Originating from the Union of Democrats for the Republic , it was founded by Jacques Chirac in 1976 and presented itself as the heir of Gaullism...
, the UDF or the Independent Republicans
Independent Republicans
The Independent Republicans were a French liberal-conservative political group founded in 1962, which became a political party in 1966 . The leader was Valéry Giscard d'Estaing....
— all supported economic liberalism. The so-called right-wing of the Socialist Party
Socialist Party (France)
The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in France and the largest party of the French centre-left. It is one of the two major contemporary political parties in France, along with the center-right Union for a Popular Movement...
: Francois Hollande
François Hollande
François Gérard Georges Hollande is a French politician. From 1997 to 2008, he was the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party. He has also served as a Deputy of the National Assembly of France, representing the first constituency of Corrèze, since 1997. He previously represented that seat...
, Dominique Strauss-Kahn
Dominique Strauss-Kahn
Dominique Gaston André Strauss-Kahn , often referred to in the media, and by himself, as DSK, is a French economist, lawyer, politician, and member of the French Socialist Party...
, Ségolène Royal
Ségolène Royal
Marie-Ségolène Royal , known as Ségolène Royal, is a French politician. She is the president of the Poitou-Charentes Regional Council, a former member of the National Assembly, a former government minister, and a prominent member of the French Socialist Party...
have done likewise.
Some rightists, such as Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
, favour radical change in the relationship between the government and the free-market. They argue that for the last 30 years, under both left-wing and right-wing governments, the French have been misled into believing that things could go on without real reforms. One may say that they favour a Thatcherite
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
approach. Others on the right (including Dominique de Villepin
Dominique de Villepin
Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin is a French politician who served as the Prime Minister of France from 31 May 2005 to 17 May 2007....
) as well as some on the left argue in favour of gradual reforms. In comparison, the 2005 refusal of the French electorate to vote for the proposed European Constitution was interpreted by some — in particular the French Communist Party
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
and far-left parties such as LO
Workers' Struggle
Lutte Ouvrière is the usual name under which the Union Communiste , a French Trotskyist political party, is known, after the name of its weekly paper. Arlette Laguiller has been its spokeswoman since 1973 and has run in each presidential election, but Robert Barcia was its founder and central...
or the LCR
Revolutionary Communist League (France)
See Revolutionary Communist League for the other Ligue communiste révolutionnaire.The Revolutionary Communist League was a French democratic revolutionary socialist political party. It was the French section of the Fourth International...
— as a popular refusal of libéralisme, which the European Union is perceived to embody. Some such as Laurent Fabius
Laurent Fabius
Laurent Fabius is a French Socialist politician. He served as Prime Minister from 17 July 1984 to 20 March 1986. He was 37 years old when he was appointed and is, so far, the youngest Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic.-Early life:...
have argued that the Socialist Party should thus have a more "left-wing" line.
Libertarianism
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
as such is rare in France; it is considered a form of ultra-liberalism or neo-liberalism and upheld only by very few right-wingers, such as Alain Madelin
Alain Madelin
Alain Madelin is a French politician and a former minister of that country.Madelin, a strong supporter of laissez-faire economics, was a candidate in the 2002 French presidential election as the leader of the Démocratie Libérale party, where he scored 3.91% on the first round...
.
Unions and leaders
Workers' unions.- Confédération Générale du TravailConfédération générale du travailThe General Confederation of Labour is a national trade union center, the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions.It is the largest in terms of votes , and second largest in terms of membership numbers.Its membership decreased to 650,000 members in 1995-96 The General...
(CGT): around 800,000 claimed members. It had traditional ties with the French Communist PartyFrench Communist PartyThe French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
, but is currently tending more towards social-democratic views. 34.00%. General secretary : Bernard ThibaultBernard ThibaultBernard Thibault, born in 1959, is the current secretary of the Confédération Générale du Travail , a French workers' union. He represents the moderate wing of the CGT, as opposed to the more radical wing noted in Marseilles' trade union.... - Confédération Française Démocratique du TravailConfédération Française Démocratique du Travail-External links:*...
(CFDT): about 800,000 members. Considered to be close to the more reformist factions of the PS, and the first to sign with "patronat". 21.81%. General secretary : François Chérèque - Force OuvrièreForce OuvrièreThe General Confederation of Labor - Workers' Force is one of the five major union federations in France. In terms of following, it is the third behind the CGT and the CFDT....
(FO): 500,000 members. Anarcho-syndicalism to yellow syndicalism, depend of the union, split from the CGT (1947). 15.81%. General secretary: Jean-Claude Mailly - Confédération Française des Travailleurs ChrétiensConfédération Française des Travailleurs Chrétiens-External links:*...
(CFTC): 140,000 members. Christian reformist. 8.69%. President: Jacques Voisin - Confédération Générale des Cadres (CFE-CGC): Reformist, White-collarWhite-collar workerThe term white-collar worker refers to a person who performs professional, managerial, or administrative work, in contrast with a blue-collar worker, whose job requires manual labor...
and executive workers union which claims 180,000 members. 8.19%. President : Bernard Van Craeynest - Union Nationale des Syndicats AutonomesUnion nationale des syndicats autonomesThe National Union of Autonomous Unions is one of the French confederations of trade unions, but they do not have the présomption irréfragable de représentativité of the General Confederation of Labour , French Democratic Confederation of Labour , Workers' Force , French Confederation of Christian...
(UNSA): 360,000 members. Reformist. 6.25%. General Secretary: Alain Olive - Solidaires Unitaires DémocratiquesSolidaires Unitaires DémocratiquesThe Solidaires or Solidaires Unitaires Démocratiques is a French group of trade unions.-Political position:They tend to favor progressive or even radical views and work with the alter-globalization or anti-globalization movement....
, (SUD): heir of the "Group of 10", a group of radical trade unions ("syndicalisme de lutte"), 110,000 members, 3.82% ; - Confédération Nationale du TravailConfédération nationale du travail- History :The CNT-F or National Confederation of Labour is a French anarcho-syndicalist union.It was founded in 1946 by Spanish anarcho-syndicalists in exile, and former members of Confédération Générale du Travail-Syndicaliste Révolutionnaire , its name is derived from the Spanish CNT, the...
(CNT): Anarcho-syndicalist trade union which claims 8,000 members
Employers' organisations.
- Movements of French Corporations (Mouvement des Entreprises de FranceMouvement des Entreprises de FranceThe Mouvement des Entreprises de France or MEDEF is the largest union of employers in France. It was formerly known as the Conseil National du Patronat Français or CNPF .It has more than 700,000 member firms, 90% are from SME, with fewer than 50 employees...
(MEDEF), formerly known as CNPF), sometimes referred to as patronat. - General confederation of the little and middle corporations ("Confédération Générale des Petites et Moyennes EntreprisesConfédération Générale des Petites et Moyennes EntreprisesThe Confédération Générale des Petites et Moyennes Entreprises is a union of employers in France.-Overview:...
") (CGPME), aligned its position to the MEDEF.
See also
- Anti-nuclear movement in FranceAnti-nuclear movement in FranceIn the 1970s, an anti-nuclear movement in France, consisting of citizens' groups and political action committees, emerged. Between 1975 and 1977, some 175,000 people protested against nuclear power in ten demonstrations....
- Balladur jurisprudenceBalladur jurisprudenceThe "Balladur jurisprudence," named after former French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur, is an unwritten rule according to which a member of the French government who has been indicted in a judicial affair should resign from his functions...
- History of the French far right
- History of the Left in FranceHistory of the Left in FranceThe Left in France at the beginning of the 20th century was represented by two main political parties, the Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party and the French Section of the Workers' International , created in 1905 as a merger of various Marxist parties...
- History of anarchism in France
- Liberalism and Radicalism in FranceLiberalism and radicalism in FranceLiberalism and radicalism in France do not form the same type of ideology. In fact, the main line of conflict in France during the 19th century was between monarchist opponents of the Republic and supporters of the Republic...
- SinistrismeSinistrismeSinistrisme is a neologism invented by Albert Thibaudet in Les idées politiques de la France . He referred to the progressive substitution of left wing parties by new, more radical parties, which in turn pushed each party towards the center Sinistrisme is a neologism invented by Albert Thibaudet in...
External links
- France’s Lost and Found Ideals by Patrice de Beer
- Vive la Revolution? by Marc Perelman, The Nation, April 29, 2009
- Will 2010 regional elections lead to political shake-up? Radio France Internationale in English