Policy Network/Fougier: French politicians - Always campaigning, never explaining

27 June 2013

French politicians believe and make believe that everything is possible - but the public have long lost faith in big political promises.

François Hollande’s first year in office was marked by several negative records in France: In the economic field, the public debt rose to a record level, France failed to meet its budget deficit target in 2012 and will certainly miss it again in 2013. Public spending is still one of the highest in the EU but French economy is currently in recession, with predictions that this trend will continue. The unemployment rate hit record levels, too and purchasing power fell for the first time since 1984.

It seems that François Hollande came to power at the wrong moment. In fact, he had to face a very bad economic situation in the eurozone and to deal with the difficult legacy from the Sarkozy’s presidency. However, there are more reasons to his unpopularity:

• Hollande has been the latest victim of the French defiant society. French public opinion habitually rejects the country’s political elite, especially because of their inability to fight the rising unemployment and their involvement in political scandals.
• He made some inappropriate choices in terms of popularity regarding the growth of the tax burden of roughly €20 billion in 2012 and the enactment of the law legalising same-sex marriage.
• French public opinion, the media and even politicians had become accustomed to the way Nicolas Sarkozy worked as president. Hence, a French president who is not hyperactive and omnipresent in the media is perceived as passive, hesitant and frankly judged as incompetent for the job.
• François Hollande is making exactly the same mistakes as his predecessors by applying the strategy: "never explain, always campaign". French leaders almost never explain what they do because they are afraid of the reactions of the street - at the same time, however, French politicians believe and make believe that everything is possible. That is what is called the myth of "political voluntarism" which is at the heart of French political culture.

Hollande matches this typical French political pattern in having initially underestimated the gravity of the crisis and in refusing to acknowledge the true nature of his economic policy, which is in reality an austerity programme. He also took decisions that broke his campaign promises. Finally, disillusionment is always high when the public understands that not everything is possible. The result of this kind of policy it that the French public think that the government does not tell the truth, that it does not take into account their concerns and that it is powerless or even incompetent to do the job.

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