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Fressoz, Françoise
5 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.
France's new bi-polar Parliament
"Even before the scale of the blue wave is revealed [with the results of France's legislative elections on Sunday June 17th], one thing is for sure: the National Assembly that will be formed on June 26th will be two-coloured", considers Françoise Fressoz. "Following suite from the presidential election, the UMP [Sarkozy's right-wing Union for a Popular Movement] majority will be undivided and unequivocal, while for the left the survival of the PS [Socialist Party] will be the only upshot of the double bill of elections that has preoccupied the country since January. ... Rarely has the bipolar parliamentary tendency been so visible. This is a revolution for the country of a thousand cheeses! [Reference to Charles De Gaulle's comment: 'How can anyone govern a nation that has 246 different kinds of cheese?'] Thus France in 2007 is experiencing a combination two types of unbalance: the crushing of minor parties by the two biggest and the UMP's clear domination of the PS. This is fuel for frustration in a country fundamentally attached to diversity and debate."
» full article (external link, French)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » France
Might a parliamentary majority be a handicap for Mr Sarkozy?
As a large right-wing victory is predicted for the French legislative elections, the first round of which will be this Sunday, June 10th, the editorialist Françoise Fressoz considers that "if the executive can suffer from too narrow a majority, it is never happy with too large a majority. For, the bigger number of elected representatives there are, the bigger the potential is for frustrated people. For each faithful follower rewarded with a key post (presidents and chairpersons of the Assembly, of groups, of commissions), how many disappointed people are left ruminating and sometimes even conspiring? ... But most difficult in the case of a strong majority, is maintaining ideological control over the troops. The more a camp wins the more arrogant it becomes, the less apt to understand that a president is the representative of all French people and not just a majority. ... Sound advice for the president would thus be, alright for a majority, but above all not too big!"
» full article (external link, French)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » France
The last lap of the French presidential election campaign
"Keen to please voters who are more and more trigger-happy with the remote control and less and less structured, the contestants sometimes seem like headless chickens running around, left, right and centre, throwing words about and agitating flags before speeding off towards other horizons. This is not exactly reassuring", considers the editorialist Françoise Fressoz. "But from behind the visible muddle, some positive signs are appearing. First of all, the problems that are irking French society are being named: crisis of national identity, crisis in the suburbs, a broken social ladder. We may mock this general catharsis, but we are better off with it taking place in the campaign rather than in the ballot box. It is always easier for a remedy to be found after a diagnosis."
» full article (external link, French)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » France
The French call into question their 'national identity"
The columnist Françoise Fressoz considers that the debate on national identity is "an imperious necessity at a time when crisis has gripped not one identity but two : the French and the European, making France a tiny thing amidst global chaos. [But the presidential candidates] cannot fight off the blues in the French soul with amalgams (watch out for immigration !) or patriotic songs (long live the 'Marseillaise'), according to ratings in opinion polls. They will only have done with it when they state clearly in which direction they want steer the country. The point of a presidential election is exactly that: to talk about France, how it relates to Europe and the rest of the world, to identify its weaknesses, highlight its strong points, choose its allies and know its enemies. Once the overall picture is clear, it will be much easier to find a rallying discourse in which the pride of being French can find its place."
» full article (external link, French)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Migration, » Integration, » France
The end of the Chirac era
The editorialist Françoise Fressoz considers that Chirac's presidency was marked by "two political catastrophes: the failed dissolution in 1997 and the 'no' vote in the referendum on the European Constitutional Treaty, both of which revealed the same weakness. Jacques Chirac did not know how to give a sense of purpose to the European adventure. Last night he tried to make up for lost time by solemnly declaring, 'it is vital that we pursue the construction of Europe. Our future is at stake.' But why did he not say so earlier?! The paradox is that we would be hard put to name another president in the history of the Republic who was as open to the world as he. His obstinate rejection of the war in Iraq, which has now owed him a flood of kudos after a torrent of criticism, came from his desire to avoid a clash of civilisations at all cost."
» full article (external link, French)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » France
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