Demokratiets situasjon i et av Europas og EUs dominerende land: det
oppmuntrende trekk er, at det ligger an til at en tredjedel av velgerne
blir vekk fra valgurnene, i det de innser at 1) forskjellen på de to
ledende kandidatene er lik null, dvs. egentlig at flertallet av velgerne
fratar den mindre halvdelen muligheten for bare formelt å leve i et
demokrati og 2) sannsynligvis også at demokratiet er redusert til en
fasade for et diktatur fra anonyme byråkratier som EUs, WTOs osv.
Et interessant program på dansk radio i kveld inneholdt intervju med et
par "sosialdemokratiske" danske deltakere i EUs såkalte
forfatningskonvent. De fortalte begeistret om hva konventet handler om:
"kampen mot terrorismen", 11. september, "sikkerhetspolitikk",
Schengen/politisamarbeid, stopp for innvandring.... altsammen jo
forskjellige betegnelser på et og det samme: den gradvise avskaffelsen
av rettsstat og demokrati også rent formelt og innførelsen av en
europeisk politistat. Det er hva EUs "forfatningsdebatt" - NB! i følge
to begeistrede tilhengere av EU -handler om. Virkelig visjonært med
andre ord.
Det gjelder om å få formalisert og økt det demokratiske underskuddet, og
det fort som bare f...
Karsten Johansen
Guardian:
Apathy heads for victory as France goes to vote
Jon Henley in Paris
Saturday April 20, 2002
The Guardian
France goes to the polls tomorrow for the first round of a presidential
election which is likely to set new records in voter apathy and
disaffection from the top contenders.
While the conservative incumbent, Jacques Chirac, and his Socialist
prime minister, Lionel Jospin, are almost certain to advance to the
run-off on May 5, yesterday's opinion polls showed that more than 30% of
the voters may stay at home. The record of 22% was set in 1969.
At the same time, over-familiarity with the Chirac-Jospin duo - their
unhappy cohabitation began in 1997, and for the past five years they
have been bound to compete for the presidency - could mean that they
collect less than 38% of the first-round vote: the lowest ever in a
French presidential election.
"If there is only one thing that stands out in the 2002 presidential
elections, it will be the supreme boredom of the French with politics in
general and with this electoral bout in particular," Libération said,
summing up the general view of a campaign which even the most hardened
observers have called deadly.
Spawned largely by such strong disaffection from the mainstream, a
record 14 candidates are running against M Chirac and M Jospin,
including two from the racist far right who are projected to win a
combined 16% of the vote, and three from the hard left expected to win
more than 11%.
Adding in the estimated scores of the maverick radical republican
Jean-Pierre Chevènement and the "huntin', shootin' and fishin' "
populist Jean St-Josse gives a total protest vote of nearly 38% - the
same as that projected for the representatives of Socialism and
Gaullism, which have governed France for the past 40 years.
Apart from a little recent mudslinging, M Jospin and M Chirac, running
neck-and-neck in the second round, have fought cautious, lacklustre
campaigns. Condemned to appeal to the middle ground, they also have to
take care not to offend their traditional allies.
The result has been strangely similar programmes, both pledging a safer,
richer, more competitive and more caring France. M Jospin has denied
that his campaign is a Socialist one; M Chirac has stressed such
not-very-conservative values as "solidarity" and environmental
protection.
Perhaps the biggest surprise is the spectacular comeback of the far
right, headed by the National Front and Jean-Marie Le Pen. He and his
former lieutenant Bruno Mégret, who now presides over the breakaway
National Republican Movement, managed only a combined 9% in the 1999
European elections.
Analysts say M Chirac's determination to push crime and violence to the
top of the agenda, helped by some shocking recent incidents, including
the massacre of eight town councillors in Nanterre last month, has
played into the hands of M Le Pen, who trailed M Jospin yesterday by
just four points.
A political scientist, Pascal Perrineau, said that the French were were
"not rejecting politics as such, but the themes, the show, the behaviour
of the political class.
"They do not feel the political class speaks their language or shares
their concerns."
The protest candidates' success, he said, was "the sign of the death of
an old form of politics and the birth of a new".
But it may also reflect the fact that under the past five years of
power-sharing the role of president has been substantially diminished.
Most pundits say the real test of where France is heading will come with
June's general elections, when the future president will hope for a
parliament of the same political complexion that will allow him to
actually accomplish something.
But the overwhelming sentiment on the streets of Paris yesterday was
boredom.
"To be perfectly honest, I don't think it'll make very much difference
who wins," said Patrice Lecadre, 39, a marketing manager.
"Chirac's past it, Jospin's too stuck in his ways, and neither of them
are sure they'll be able to get anything done anyway. France hasn't had
the election it deserves."
Main Candidates
Jacques Chirac
Poll rating 19.5%.
Once again, the charm of the outgoing conservative president outweighs a
lack of achievements in office, policy u-turns and alleged involvement
in sleaze scandals.
Promises: 33% tax cut, crime crackdown, aid to business
Lionel Jospin
Poll rating 18%.
Slashing unemployment and cutting the working week to 35 hours have
failed to dissolve the public perception of the Socialist PM as a dour,
party-pooping headmaster
Promises: tax cuts for low earners, 900,000 new jobs, end to
homelessness, crackdown on crime
Jean-Marie Le Pen
Poll rating 14%
The far-right leader has toned down the racism and is the preferred
protest vote of disillusioned conservatives who think the country's
going to the dogs
Promises: zero tolerance of crime, priority for French nationals in
jobs, housing, and benefits, return of the franc
Arlette Laguiller
Poll rating 7%.
Diminutive, unreconstructed Trotskyist, appeals to Socialists and
Communists who think the French left has gone Blair-shaped.
Promises: pay rises for the proletariat, outlawing of layoffs by
profit-making companies.
Jean-Pierre Chevénement
Poll rating 6.5%
Oddball ex-minister, represents the very Gallic political current of
radical nationalism.
Promises: crime crackdown, 25% rise in minimum wage, EU renegotiation to
restore sovereignty
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