French Political System: Difference between revisions

 

Presidents of the Fifth Republic (starting from 1959) are as follows:

* '''Charles de Gaulle''' (1959-1969): As a general, he became the chief of the Free French Forces during [[World War 2]] after the fall of France. Talked on British radio on June 18th 1940 about fighting on. Needless to say, he became a hero of [[La Résistance]]. Became President due to his being rock-like and firm in the face of the [[The French Colonial Empire|Algerian War]], although it turned out that he wasn't firm and rock-like the way his supporters wanted, and in fact gave Algeria its independence. [[Useful Notes/Canada|Canadians]] remember him best for his infamous "Vive le Quebec libre!" comment at Expo 67 in [[Montreal]], which emboldened Quebec separatists and [[Berserk Button|pissed off]] English Canadians to no end. Despite his charisma and popularity, he was seen more and more as dictator-like as his term went on, and was considered way too conservative for the France of [[The Sixties]] - May 1968 will attest as much. He managed to survive the May 1968 revolt by calling a snap election where his party won a crushing majority, but [[But Now I Must Go|quit]] after a referendum on reforming the Senate and administrative divisions was overwhelmingly defeated, because he had promised to resign if it failed. He is still seen as one of the greatest Frenchmen of all time. Famously depicted as very tall, with a big nose, wearing a military uniform with the trademark [[Nice Hat|two-starred kepi]] and forming a "V" with his raised arms.

* '''Georges Pompidou''' (1969-1974): He is mostly famous for his huge eyebrows and keeping his cigarette in his mouth when in public, which was a good thing for political cartoonists. Ironically, he didn't die from throat cancer as one would assume, but from [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldenstr<!-- C3B6m_macroglobulinemia Waldenström's disease]]. Pompidou was less (''way'' less) hostile to the European Economic Community than de Gaulle, his good relations with Chancellor Willy Brandt helping the emergence of the famed Franco-German cooperation, and he broke with his predecessor's obstructionism by voting in favour of the UK's membership. On the domestic front, he spent his first year in office dealing with the devaluation of the franc after the paralysis of May 1968, and his last year saw the long post-war boom (or the ''trente gloriouses'', "thirty glorious years" [[NonIndicativeName despite only lasting from 1945 to 1973]]) sputter to a halt in the midst of the 1973 oil crisis. -->

** Another thing he is associated with is the Pompidou Center, or "Beaubourg", a modern art museum with a... [http://www.mackoo.com/Paris/images/IMGP2840.jpg remarkable (and controversial) architecture]. It started a tradition among presidents to create a cultural monument: The Louvre Pyramid for Mitterrand and the ''Quai Branly'' Museum for Chirac.

* '''Valéry Giscard d'Estaing''' (1974-1981): The youngest president of the Fifth Republic, he is mostly famous for telling Miterrand that he ''"[[Beam Me Up Scotty|doesn't have the monopoly of the heart]]"'', being seen as an [[French Jerk|arrogant douchebag]], being accused of being offered diamonds by Central African dictator Jean-Bedel Bokassa, and still being alive despite being very old now. Despite being a center-right President, he spearheaded liberal reforms on such social issues as the age of majority (reduced from 21 to 18), divorce, birth control, and abortion, and instituted France's high-speed rail and nuclear power systems. He is a major proponent of European integration.

* '''François Mitterrand''' (1981-1995): The longest-serving President. He is the first left-wing President to be elected in the Fifth Republic. He has a daughter out of wedlock, Mazarine Pingeot. Mitterrand, who had become very unpopular in his later years, saw a surge of his popularity when his daughter's existence was made public. First, it happens that Mitterrand took care of his daughter: instead of hiding her far away from him, he secretly raised her while he was president. (Note: when French people talk about "family values", they are talking about being a good parent and not abandoning your kids. This is [[Values Dissonance|very different]] from the American definition of the term, which is basically a synonym for "conservative Christian values.") Second, as [[Holier Than Thou]] attitudes are seen by a great majority of French citizens as [[Straw Hypocrite|Straw Hypocrisy 101]], only a few of Mitterrand's ennemies criticized him about this; actually, Giscard knew about Mitterrand's double life since [[The Seventies]] and never used it publicly against him. He was diagnosed a prostate cancer in 1981 and kept it hidden from public attention [[The Reveal|until 1992]], as it would have seriously prevented his chances to be re-elected. He died of it at age 80 in 1996.

** While he and his party initially attempted to follow a left-wing, Keynesian program in office, backtracking ensued rather quickly after it led to capital flight and problems with France's adherence to the [[European Union|Exchange Rate Mechanism]], and for the rest of his term governance followed a centrist approach. Some of his term's policies, such as an increased minimum wage, the abolishment of the death penalty, the solidarity tax on wealth or the reduction of the legal workweek to 39 hours, have survived to this day despite being at times repealed (the solidarity tax on wealth was canceled in 1986 by a right-wing government, only to be reinstated in 1988 when the Socialists regained the Prime Minister's office) or failed to be implemented initially (the promised 35-hour workweek came about in 2000). Controversially, Mitterrand ordered the bombing of Greenpeace's ''Rainbow Warrior'' ship in 1985, is [[Writtenbythe Winners|alleged]] to have sabotaged Western involvement during the [[Useful Notes/Rwanda|Rwandan]] Genocide due to [[Misplaced Nationalism]] and favouritism towards the Rwandan dictatorship, abused the French anti-terrorist laws and established a special monitoring office to hide Mazarine's existence from the public, was [[Open Secret|revealed]] in 1994 to have held a bureaucratic post in Pétain's government, and his Prime Ministers after 1988 presided over a long string of scandals that tarnished the party, from the usual corruption up to knowingly giving haemophiliacs [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infected_blood_scandal_(France) HIV-infected blood]. By the end of his term, the Socialists and their allies had become so unpopular they'd suffered [[Landslide Election|crushing defeats]] in the local and parliamentary elections of 1992 and 1993.

* '''Jacques Chirac''' (1995-2007): Has an old reputation for being a crook and a liar, and yet managing to remain sympathetic to the public. Apparently, succeeded in winning the 1995 elections because a puppet satirizing him in the news-comedy show ''[[Les Guignols De L Info]]'' was very funny and likeable to viewers; his 2002 [[Landslide Election]] victory was because his opponent was a far-right nationalist. Became famous overseas for opposing the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The main "antagonist" of ''[[Asterix|Obelix and Co.]]'' was based on him (during his days as Prime Minister). Some would [[Never Live It Down|never live down his comment]] that there were too many immigrants in France, not to mention ''"the noise and the smell"'' that'd badger honest French citizens. Has a bit of a reputation as unprincipled: he campaigned in 1995 promising to "heal the social fracture" only to appoint a government that tried to push reforms of public services, controversially announced more atomic tests in 1995 before abandoning them after mere months, made the ''Call of Cochin'' in 1976 criticising the EEC-friendly Gaullists only to become a strong EU supporter in office, and so on. His first government, led by Alain Juppé, bombed so spectacularly (proposed changes to labour laws and public healthcare in 1995 led to France's largest strikes since 1968) he dissolved the National Assembly and called fresh elections to try and get a stronger mandate. This move backfired when a leftist coalition won a large majority, leading to a cohabitation with the socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin from 1997 to 2002, and making Chirac the first President to lose a snap election he called. D'Estaing holds a lifelong grudge against him because he feels that Chirac intentionally split the vote and helped Mitterrand win in 1981. Was previously the Prime Minister twice (between 1974-1976 and 1986-1988) and Mayor of Paris between 1977-1995, during which time he was accused of corruption and ultimately convicted after leaving office. The French electorate's view of him when he left office can be largely summed up as "good riddance" (and he was also severely unpopular in his first two years in office), whereas nowadays it's a bit closer to "y'know, he probably wasn't as bad as we thought."

** An interesting piece of trivia: thanks to the 2002 election, Chirac simultaneously holds the record for winning a presidential election with the lowest percentage of votes (19,88% in the first round) and highest percentage of votes (82,21% in the second round), because the far-right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen had just enough votes to beat the socialist candidate Lionel Jospin in the first round (16,86% to 16,18%) thanks to vote-splitting among the left but drew absolutely no sympathy outside of his electorate.

* '''Nicolas Sarkozy''' (2007-2012): The most unpopular President of the Fifth Republic so far. When serving as Minister of the Interior, he was famous for his harsh anti-immigrant stance and getting rough against crime. His election as President was largely based on his charisma and the fact that he managed to attract numerous votes from the far-right, nobody else dared to do it before him. When elected, at the top of his popularity, he had the not-so-brilliant idea of partying in a very posh restaurant, having a holiday on a luxury yacht and tripling his own wage in the days following his election - suffice to say his socialite lifestyle during a time of economic crisis and painful austerity policies pissed of voters quite fiercely. He divorced his wife (his second divorce) and remarried supermodel Carla Bruni (not exactly [[My Girl Is Not a Slut|First Lady material]]), who is often the focus of celebrity magazines. One of the biggest things the public would [[Never Live It Down]] is him replying ''[[Memetic Mutation|"Get lost, dumbass!"]]'' to a man who refused to shake his hand (''"Touch me not!"'')... on TV, too! (And while one of his minister was telling him [[Genre Savvy|"We're being filmed right now]]"). He was often mocked for his lower-than-average size and temper, which has brought many comparisons of him to [[The Napoleon|Napoléon Bonaparte]]. Countless songs and parodies have actually been written about his temper, German Chancellor Angela Merkel once compared him to French actor [http://citizenzoo.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/double-vie2.jpg Louis De Funès]. Has been heavily criticized for trying to make his own son the president of the "EPAD", one of the biggest business district in the world, while said son was only 23 years old, and had no qualifications whatsoever. He is the father of the little Giulia since November 2011, given to him by Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, becoming the first French president to become father during his term. He confirmed he will quit politics for good after the official transfer of power to François Hollande.

** His unpopularity also comes from his cold disregard for massive popular protests, unlike Chirac who at least knew when to back down (see Juppé's failed 1995 reforms, or Dominique de Villepin's proposed changes to employment laws being scrapped in 2006 in the face of widespread opposition). He passed his first university reform (2007) during the summer vacation just after he was elected and the second one (2009) caused an unprecedented ''three month national strike'' in French universities. In 2008, he made the parliament ratify the Lisbon Treaty, even though the same treaty had been rejected by referendum in 2005<ref>More precisely, the rejected treaty was supposed to establish a "European Constitution", but the Lisbon Treaty is essentially the same thing, just rewritten a bit here and there</ref>. And in 2010, the reform to push back the retirement age ([[I Lied|which he had initially promised ''not'' to do]]) caused the biggest demonstrations since 1968. Add to that some doubts regarding his links to billionaire businesswoman Liliane Bettencourt (France's richest woman) and some African [[President for Life|dictators]], as well as numerous scandals involving members of his government (corruption, racism...), and it is needless to say a good part of French people grew really, ''really'' tired of him.

* '''François Hollande''' (2012-current): The second left-wing President to be elected in the Fifth Republic, and the first non-married one. He has four children from his previous relation with Ségolène Royal (who was the socialist candidate for presidency in 2007) and his current mate is a political journalist, Valérie Trierweiler. First Secretary of the Socialist Party for eleven years between 1997 and 2008, he is also deputy of the National Assembly for Corrèze's 1st Constituency and President of the General Council of Corrèze <ref>Jacques Chirac carried on the very same functions in Corrèze. He and Hollande are good friends</ref>. His programme includes reflation and renegotiation of current European austerity policies with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, [[Determinator|who will likely not give up]]. Time will tell. Other notable scheduled measures include : retirement age back to 60 for people who started to work early in their life (18 mostly), increased minimum wage, massive taxes on highest financial incomes, capping tax loopholes, reducing the share of nuclear power in electricity generation, legalization of same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption...