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How pro-European is Nicolas Sarkozy?

For months Europe has been waiting for France. Now a new president has been elected and a new generation is at the helm. Will European politics benefit from the changes Nicolas Sarkozy has promised?

"Tonight France has returned to Europe," announced France's new president Nicolas Sarkozy following his election victory on 6 May 2007. Europe responded to the news with a collective sigh of relief: "The sigh of relief in Brussels was so loud that other things that Sarkozy said following his victory were studiously ignored," noted Peter Winkler on May 7 in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Sarkozy also mentioned that many citizens "perceived the EU as a Trojan horse of all the threats of globalisation rather than as a shield that protects them".

Nikolas Sarkozy is France's new president.
Photo: AP

The subject of Europe was barely mentioned during the French presidential election campaign and Sarkozy has yet to present a compelling concept for European policy. So far he has expressed views on only a few points: as far as economic policy is concerned he wants to protect French interests and he is critical of the European Central Bank. Regarding foreign policy, he opposes EU membership for Turkey and in the debate about the European constitution he advocates the idea of a mini treaty, which would be accepted by France without a referendum.

So what effect will Sarkozy's presidency have on Europe? And what alliances might he forge?

Europe and globalisation

During his election campaign Nicolas Sarkozy presented himself in France and abroad as a reformer and moderniser with a patriotic streak. Regardless of whether they see this as positive or negative, most commentators consider him a pragmatist. Thus the European political scene has high expectations of Sarkozy. They hope that he - together with the current EU president Angela Merkel - will be able to bring about reconciliation between the diverging positions within the EU.

In Great Britain Sarkozy's victory was watched particularly closely in the hope that the new president may become an ally who approves of the Britain's economic liberalism and shares its minimalist ideas regarding the European constitution treaty. Outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair sent Sarkozy a friendly video message in French via Youtube, and British Labour MP David Blunkett enthusiastically commented in the Times on May 8: "We can do business with Mr Sarkozy."

However on the same day in the British newspaper, The Independent, Mary Dejevsky rejected the idea that Sarkozy would suddenly become a committed globaliser, calling it "fantasy". And in the Guardian David Hearst warned on May 7 that "protectionist Europe has advanced... Sarkozy's view of Europe as a collective shelter against globalisation is diametrically opposed to the EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson's vision of Europe as a player in the global market."

Not only in Great Britain are there fears that Sarkozy may be less pro-European and more nationalist and protectionist than he appears. Eastern Europeans and the new EU member states are particularly concerned. In the Gazeta Wyborcza of May 7, Jacek Pavlicki expressed the fear that France's economic protectionism could spread to Europe as a whole: "Sarkozy will defend a Europe of extended employee rights and an EU that adopts a protectionist stance against 'cheap' and more competitive countries like Poland. Sarkozy plans to combat the transfer of companies to other countries and the transfer of capital. So conflict could break out between Poland and France over this or between Paris and the new EU members."

The Turkey Issue

Sarkozy may also spark conflict in the EU in the debate about EU membership for Turkey. On May 2, in his TV duel with socialist opponent Ségolène Royal, he stressed that he opposed full EU membership for Turkey and asserted that the country was part of Asia rather than part of Europe.

However, the EU has already opened official membership talks with Turkey and the negotiations are scheduled to enter a new chapter by the end of Germany's EU presidency. "Berlin [will] not put the opening of a new chapter to vote as it wants to avoid a French veto," the Financial Times Deutschland speculated on May 8.

For his part Josef Kirchengast of the Austrian Standard doesn't believe Sarkozy will persist in his rejection of EU membership for Turkey once he's president: "Can he, as president of one of the EU's two most important countries, afford to break his word to a recognised candidate country even though it's still far from clear whether or not that country will fulfil the conditions for membership?... It's much more likely that he'll adopt a pragmatic approach here, too."

The Mediterranean instead of the Black Sea

"Sarkozy has frankly stated what the majority of Europeans want," wrote Razvan Ciubotaru on May 7 in the Romanian daily Cotidianul with reference to Sarkozy's comments on Turkey. Ciubotaru draws attention to a geopolitical factor that is of particular interest to Romania with its Black Sea coast: "That Sarkozy has slammed the door on Turkey could escalate the Kurdistan problem. And the EU's influence in the Black Sea region is diminishing."

In France people know that Sarkozy is more interested in the Mediterranean. Figaro columnist Alain Barluet speculated on May 8 that Sarkozy would use the next round of membership talks to push his European partners "in the direction of his ambitious project for a Mediterranean union."

A 'light' constitution

However, as far as finding a solution to the impasse over the European constitution is concerned, Europe's politicians and its media have high hopes for Nicolas Sarkozy. His idea of replacing the failed constitutional treaty with a slimmed-down version could help to avoid another referendum in France. In the May 8 edition of the Berliner Zeitung Alois Berger wrote that Sarkozy's comments "give us hope that he really will be able to end the European blockade. Sarkozy is more pragmatic and less ideological."

It's precisely this brand of pragmatism that Austrian journalist Thomas Mayer condemns. In the Standard of May 8 he complains: "Those who indulge in pragmatism seldom mention the price to be paid: less power for the European Parliament which directly represents the citizens in matters of environmental protection, domestic security and civil rights. And more power for the Council of Ministers. After all, the heads of government want to draw up the 'mini treaty' amongst themselves. With the EU constitutional treaty at least the parliaments were actively involved."

Old alliances and new powerhouses

Mayer's concern that small countries in particular could end up under the thumb of larger countries such as Germany, France and Great Britain has its roots partly in a comment made by Sarkozy, who once hinted that a "club of six" should take over leadership of Europe. In an article written for Project Syndicate, French political scientist Dominique Moisi, who teaches in Warsaw, speculated which six countries Sarkozy was referring to, concluding: "But Poland has cut itself off from the circle of politically relevant countries and the leaders of Italy and Spain made no secret of their support for Royal."

But in the May 8 edition of Die Welt Miriam Hollstein fears "the end of the traditional, special relationship between France and Germany. Sarkozy has never developed any particular interest in France's neighbour to the right of the Rhine."

Many commentators believe the new generation and Sarkozy as an individual will suffice to create new alliances in Europe. "The new French president is more transatlantically oriented than trans-Rhine-oriented," noted Alain-Xavier Wurst in Zeit online on May 7. For Wolfgang Böhm of the Austrian newspaper Die Presse, it's already clear that with Sarkozy, who has Hungarian and Jewish roots, a "classic European" has become French president.

All this to one side, Sarkozy adopted a clearly nationalist tone throughout the election campaign and has spoken out in favour of tough restrictions on immigration. On May 10 Wolfgang Böhm asserted that the French trend of renewed nationalism was spreading across Europe. "With Nicolas Sarkozy in France, the Kaczynski brothers in Poland and now Gordon Brown in Great Britain, a new generation has come to power that represents a general scepticism towards the world as a whole, but above all their scepticism regarding the EU... But it's no great tragedy if the post-war thesis of Europeanisation is superseded by its antithesis, nationalism. Perhaps in the end the synthesis of these two opposing positions would create a more pragmatic style of European politics."

Sabine Seifert

Sabine Seifert was an editor for euro|topics. She studied German studies and History before going on to work as a cultural editor at the tageszeitung ...
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