Villepin is France’s New PM

The Presidency of France is a nifty job. There’s all sort of power, and when the excrement hits the air conditioning unit, there’s a Prime Minister to sacrifice to the wolves. And so it was yesterday after Frenchmen voted against the political establishment and the European Constitution. Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin resigned to be replaced by Dominique de Villepin. President Jacques Chirac gets to keep his job for another 22 months, and everything in France is now on hold.

Mr. Raffarin had been premier for three years, and so, the record of the government is largely his. The economic reforms haven’t taken, and unemployment is high. Had he been more successful, there is every reason to believe that the referendum might have gone the other way. All politics is local, and in France, every referendum is about the government of the day. The French voters spoke clearly and eloquently about their desire for change. If that costs Europe a constitution, so be it.

Mr. Villepin is best known outside his country, if known at all, as the foreign minister who tried to scuttle Messrs. Bush and Blair’s war in Iraq. This will keep Franco-American relations on hold until at least the French presidential elections in 2006, when Mr. Chirac will certainly retire. Mr. Villepin is a staunch Chirac loyalist who has never been elected to public office (the miracles of the French system multiply upon observation). This means he will not deviate from the president’s line because he doesn’t want to ideologically and cannot since he lacks a power base of his own.

And so, what can Mr. Villepin do in the next two years as he caps off his career (unless a newly elected rightish president re-appoints him to office)? Not much really. The reforms embodied in the EU constitution are not in the cards. And the French have opted for a revolution against change, which makes other kinds of reforms difficult if not impossible.

The president and the government of France have lost the support of the people, and the changes are only cosmetic. For France, a lame duck government for two years is a problem. For its European partners, it is a challenge. For no one, is a canard boiteux regime a blessing.



© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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