Viewed from the Netherlands, French political culture is a distant, exotic island with archaic rituals. The absolutist monarchy disappeared in 1789, but French politics has remained essentially a court culture.
Peter Burke wrote in his masterly work Louis XIV's propaganda :'Politics during the Sun King was highly ritualized and full of heraldic symbolism, characterized by numerous intrigues, blows below the belt, sexual excesses and financial scandals.' Pierre Choderlos de Laclos' novel Liaisons dangereuses, which revolves around heartless seduction, spurned love and loss of reputation, dates back to 1782. The protagonist, Viscount de Valmont, however, with his poetic, virile and villainous behavior would hardly stand out today in the wings of the parliament, the Assemblée Nationale in, of course, Paris.
Hang on strong leader
The current right-wing populism in France around Marine Le Pen is only the latest evidence that politics here has traditionally been strongly person-oriented. France has been ruled by kings for over a thousand years. Although the Revolution of 1789 put an end to the absolutist monarchy and literally cost Louis XVI (1754-1793) his head, the monarchy made a glorious return after the unique Napoleonic period. Undeniably, there is a penchant for “strong leaders” in France. Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) was one of them, as was his nephew Napoleon III, emperor from 1852 to 1870. The political system that France chose for itself in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was constantly changing, but this meandering course left the leadership culture behind. and cult untouched.
The Republics also had powerful presidents in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, such as Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970) and François Mitterrand. They cultivated a virile, formal, hierarchical and authoritarian style that was accepted or even applauded by others. Only in recent years have young people or journalists started to question it. And make no mistake, that style certainly does not only apply to the political right.
Priest-King De Gaulle
The absolutist traces are anchored in French political culture. Examples too many. The images of the press conferences that Charles de Gaulle gave in the Élysée from 1958 onwards are iconic. The president was enthroned on a dais in the majestic Salle des fêtes with its characteristic gilded ceiling, red carpets, candelabra, draperies and crystal chandeliers. His ministers sat at the feet of the pseudo-king. Around them, respect the journalists of domestic and foreign media. These meetings, organized and staged in detail, have been called 'grand-messes républicaines', and of course they were. The "priest-king" unfolded in his pulpit the broad outlines of his politics, his visions, ambitions. Subsequently, a few selected journalists were allowed to ask questions.
These were meetings that mainly showed who the president was and who held state power. Or what about 'les ors de la République', literally the gold of the Republic. This refers to the material presence of the royal past in contemporary politics:the buildings and furniture from the time of the kings that are still in use today. Today's politicians let it be. For example, the working environment of the senators, in the former Palais de Luxembourg, is full of splendor.
Regal allure also in the Élysée, where the president resides, more of a mini palace than an official residence. Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV's favorite mistress, once lived here. Or take Versailles, expanded from castle to imposing palace by the most famous French king of all time, Louis XIV. This is where the French parliament meets in joint session on special occasions, such as for constitutional amendments or urgent statements by the president. Such podiums are very decisive for the color and atmosphere of state power.
Party is a vehicle for its own ambitions
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The popularity of the word 'fief' is indicative of the fact that the personal bond between voters and elected officials is still very important. In its original sense it is a medieval fief, but in contemporary usage it denotes a constituency or group of confidants. It is used over and over. Unlike in the Netherlands, in France the political person is central to political life. Principles and programs are of course important, but party discipline has always remained alien to the little cocks that make it in politics. Parties here are mainly vehicles for personal ambitions.
That is why parties and movements constantly change names. Take the current center-right party Les Républicains. It was named so in 2015 at the initiative of Nicolas Sarkozy, after its counterpart in the United States. It was an embrace of American dualism, American political culture and also to be seen as a symbolic attempt by the right to appropriate the idea of republicanism. Left-wing parties therefore tried to ban the name, because they are also republican. In vain.
Before Sarkozy's intervention, the party was called UMP, with two meanings:first, Union pour la Majorité Présidettielle, created in 2002 after the first round of the presidential elections in which Jacques Chirac had to face Jean-Marie Le Pen to his horror, and then Union pour un Movement Popular. The UMP again grew out of the RPR (Rassemblement pour la République) and other smaller formations (which abound in France, like pilot fish around a shark), founded in 1976 by Jacques Chirac, with the aim of promoting his presidential ambitions of a solid party apparatus. to provide. This is an example on the right, but the same is true for the left. From 1971, François Mitterrand molded the Parti Socialiste, albeit without name changes, into an electoral power machine that should earn him the presidency.
Mistress or courtesan
Besides monarchical, French politics is also macho, not to say a thoroughly sexist environment. The French love the stories. Sexus Politicus (2006), by journalists Christophe Deloire and Christophe Dubois, is an encyclopedic account of slippages and scandals since 1958, and it became a bestseller. The tradition of liaisons dangereuses goes back to the Ancien Régime, the time of the kings. The Duke of Saint-Simon, an influential court official at the time of the Sun King (1638-1715), wrote in his memoirs that he sometimes hid 'derrière la tapisserie' (behind the tapestry) with a lady-in-waiting. The smooth details of the 54 affairs of King Henry IV (1553-1610) are also extensively described.
Sexuality and politics rested on the 'principle du bon plaisir du roi'. The monarch was entitled to his pleasures. Women in French politics only played a role as 'compagne', courtesan or mistress, although that has slowly changed. The first female secretaries of state date from the progressive governments of the Popular Front just before the Second World War. After the war there were female ministers and Édith Cresson was the first female prime minister under socialist president Mitterrand in 1991-1992, but still, female politicians have to fight for their place again and again. The success of Marine Le Pen as leader of the Front National, however controversial her election manifesto, is a sign of emancipation.
Problems for Strauss-Kahn and Fillon
Traditionally, the private and political domains were sharply separated in French politics, but this has now come to an end. Not only because politicians have started to use their personal lives for political gain (see Sarkozy with singer and society star Carla Bruni), but also because ethical codes have shifted. The public no longer accepts the old convention that politicians can do their thing. For example, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, figurehead of the Parti Socialiste, fell over a sex scandal, which would have been unimaginable in the past. And in the last election campaign, François Fillon had an unexpectedly hard time due to fake jobs for relatives when he was still a deputy. Corruption used to be rife and everyone knew it. Now a politician gets in trouble because of it. Despite such shifts, the author of Liaisons dangereuses from the eighteenth century still recognize a lot in French politics today.