The French-American Foundation Weekly Brief, March 25, 2011

Across France, on Sunday, March 20, local elections to fill General Council assemblies that oversee French départements, saw a victory by the Socialist Party and the rising of the far-right Front National as discontent with President Nicolas Sarkozy brought setbacks for his majority Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party, Reuters reported. With 2,026 seats to be renewed, the Interior Minister announced that the Socialist Party could have won 25.1 percent of seats, while UMP took 17.1 percent and the National Front took 15.3 percent.  A recent poll showed that 68 percent of French people disapproved of Sarkozy’s performance in March, 5 percent higher than in February, and the vote saw a turn away from the majority party.  This also partially explained a 56-percent abstention from the vote. General Secretary of the Socialist Party and potential 2012 presidential candidate Martine Aubry said the elections indicated a “loss of spirit” by the UMP, according to Le Figaro. As the presidential elections loom just a little more than a year away, the fall of Sarkozy is magnified in the context of the rise of Marine Le Pen.

As second-round elections are set to be held on Sunday, March 27, this week has been filled with strategic discourse as the majority UMP finds itself in a difficult situation. The National Front, a far-right populist movement, advanced to the second round in 394 cantons, 100 more than in 2004, L’Humanité reported. As the far-right party will face off with a Socialist candidate in 204 second-round elections, France’s leftist parties – the prominent Socialist Party and the smaller Communist Party and Ecologie Europe – have formed an alliance to promote the success of the left in the final local elections before the 2012 presidential elections, according to 20 Minutes. The UMP party, however, has refrained from making any endorsements. Party leader Jean-François Copé announced after the elections on Sunday, March 20, that he would not encourage UMP voters to vote for either Socialist candidates or Front National candidates when an UMP candidate was not in the second-round face off, as explored by 20 Minutes. After echoing that assertion on Sunday, President Nicolas Sarkozy attempted to calm the considerable debate surrounding the lack of UMP endorsements by reminding his Ministerial Cabinet of the “collective” role of politicians, as servants of the people on Wednesday, March 23. The lack of endorsement has often been juxtaposed with the “Republican pact” between Socialists and UMP voters to defeat Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2002, when he shocked the nation by advancing to the second round of the presidential election before losing to Jacques Chirac.

French officials announced on Wednesday, March 23, that a fourth search for the black box and wreckage of Air France flight 447 was under way off the northeast coast of Brazil, the Washington Post reported. The search, which will feature robots scouring a 3,900-square-mile area in the mountainous depths of the Atlantic Ocean, could last until July. The search came as a Paris court charges plane manufacturer Airbus with manslaughter for the 228 deaths resulting from the June 1, 2009, crash. The charges allowed for additional searches after three failed attempts. L’Express explored the security measures taken by Air France-KLM in the two years since the crash, for which the French airline is also facing legal charges.

In light of the failure to cool radioactive materials at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactor, French Prime Minister François Fillon announced on Thursday, March 24, that the 58 reactors in France would all be inspected to address safety concerns, Le Point reported. By Wednesday, March 23, no elevation in the level of radioactive materials had been detected in France, according to the Nouvel Observateur. France derives 80 percent of its energy from nuclear sources and is a promoter of nuclear energy worldwide.  It has shown solidarity with Japan ad continues to promote nuclear energy as safe amid increased debate over the risk of nuclear energy both in France and across the world. At an emergency meeting of European ministers in Brussels on Monday, March 21, French Energy Minister Eric Besson criticized the reaction by German officials, who called the Fukushima events “apocalyptic,” as a unnecessary, neurotic response to the events, according to the Telegraph.

Two members of the Libyan transitional National Council met with a gathering of humanitarians, politicians, and journalists in Paris to discuss the future of the conflict-torn nation.  France is part of a coalition of allies leading a military intervention to stop the violent suppression of rebel forces by leader Muammar al-Gaddafi, Le Figaro reported. Among sentiments touting France as a champion of human rights and thanking President Nicolas Sarkozy for promoting an intervention supported by the United Nations, the two representatives spoke both of a short-term plan to rid the nation of the “criminal” Gaddafi and to form a secular democracy in the long term, according to Le Point. Tension began to grow as leadership of the military intervention in Libya came into question. While France has taken a leading military role, as explored by Libération, questions linger about which nation should lead the efforts and whether NATO should be deemed the leader of the efforts to halt violence promoted by Gaddafi. A Le Monde article addressed the fact that France is at war and questioned how to balance the nation’s humanitarian efforts with its military obligations.

Interior Minister Claude Guéant stirred controversy this week following a gaffe in which he made reference to the allied mission into Libya as a “crusade” on Tuesday, March 22, as explored by La Croix and Rue 89.  He came into office following the controversies linking several ministers, notably ousted Foreign Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie, to the contested leaders of Tunisia and Egypt.