Chaotic French elections shaking de Gaulle legacy
Fifth Republic’s promise of political stability now in doubt
colombey-les-deux-églises, france» The General rests in peace.
In the graveyard of a small stone church in this afterthought of a country village, Charles de Gaulle — the founding father of modern France — enjoys the repose only awarded to the “great men” of history. Tourists traipse through his house; admirers bow their heads at the grave of the man who transformed his country into a vital player on the global stage. But these days, the future of the France he built and its status in the world are suddenly in jeopardy.
When mainland French voters go to the polls Sunday, they will answer questions that have scarcely been posed in any of their lifetimes: the essence of the French nation, to whom it belongs and how it should be governed. The fate of Europe may also lie in the balance: Two of the four candidates currently within striking distance of the vote’s final round — the farright Marine Le Pen and the farleft Jean-Luc Mélenchon — see France’s future as better outside the European Union, once seen as an unshakable economic and diplomatic response to the perils of history.
In an age of rising political extremes, nothing is certain — least of all the status quo.
In 1958 — when de Gaulle established the Fifth Republic, the semi-presidential system that has governed this country ever since — what he promised his countrymen most of all was political stability. But in 2017, that stability seems to have all but vanished. Regardless of which candidate emerges triumphant from the two rounds of voting to come, significant structural change could soon arrive.
De Gaulle — part president, part monarch — typically sought to rule by transcending the fray of partisan mudslinging, a model that most of his successors sought to emulate in the decades that followed. But this has changed in recent years, analysts say.
“Recent presidents have been too partisan, and too interventionist — especially Sarkozy and Hollande,” said Sudhir Hazareesingh, the author of a critically acclaimed book on de Gaulle and a professor of French politics at Oxford University. “De Gaulle believed a president should preside, and governance should be left to the government.”
This, for many voters, has shown the cracks in the darker side of the system de Gaulle created and that has endured for more than 60 years: a powerful executive with few checks on its authority. Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2011 foray into Libya and François Hollande’s controversial anti-terrorist measures both presented moments when French presidents imposed their wills against the legislature.
In the realm of domestic politics especially, that presidential authority can seem bizarrely unimpeachable, even when an administration is historically unpopular. “Hollande, for instance, has 5 to 10 percent approval ratings, and he’s still running the country,” said Patrick Weil, a leading expert on immigration and citizenship in France. “There is no real counter-power, and people don’t want that anymore.”
In direct opposition to de Gaulle and his legacy, Mélenchon has campaigned on what he has called a “Sixth Republic,” a new regime that would, in theory, rely less on a dominant executive and more on proportional representation.
As in the Britain of Brexit and the United States of President Donald Trump, in France there is now a widespread rejection of the “system.”
For the first time in the history of de Gaulle’s Fifth Republic, the center-left and center-right parties that have traded the French presidency ever since are unlikely even to qualify for the next round of the election.
François Fillon, the candidate for Les Républicains, France’s traditional conservative party, has struggled to ward off allegations of corruption. Meanwhile, Benoît Hamon, the softspoken Socialist candidate, is losing handily to Mélenchon.