🇫🇷Weekly Dispatch - Sarkozy is back
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🇫🇷Weekly Dispatch - Sarkozy is back
20/08/2023 - The French Dispatch is back from the summer, Nicolas Sarkozy calls for Russian rapprochement, and Gérald Darmanin declares war on economic monopolies in French Polynesia.
The Weekly Dispatch is your weekly update on major events in French and European politics, published on Sundays to give you the ideal summary of current affairs.
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This week
☀️TFD is back from the summer
🇷🇺Sarkozy calls for Russian rapprochement
🇵🇫Darmanin declares war on economic monopolies
☀️TFD is back from the summer
Like many French Ministers, who were ordered to stay in France for their holidays this year, your favourite publication spent their holidays in sunny La Rochelle, where it was a less than sunny, but still very pleasant few days of rest and recuperation.
And with these few days of rest and recuperation, I have had ideas (imagine that), so expect an update towards the end of the month!
For the time being, I have a few requests:
Firstly, if you enjoy this publication, make sure that you’re subscribed to the publication so you can receive it every week!
Secondly, why not refer it to your friends? If you enjoy it, maybe they will? Plus, we’ll be able to broaden the community around
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Admittedly, this week will be much shorter than usual, due to it being the summer and relatively quiet, but please enjoy regardless!
🇷🇺Sarkozy calls for Russian rapprochement
Nicolas Sarkozy, a man who was recently condemned for corruption and sentenced to house arrest, has very clearly lost touch with politics.
In an interview with Le Figaro this Wednesday, he called on Europe to “clarify its strategy” and find a compromise with Russia, condemning the current support for Ukraine’s war of survival a “strange idea” that shouldn’t be pursued.
Having been the president who was involved in the 2008 negotiations to end Russia’s bloody invasion of Georgia, it is odd to see a man who saw Russia completely ignore his 12 August ceasefire expect them to respect any at this point.
“We cannot stick to the strange idea of "waging war without waging it". We will be forced to clarify our strategy, especially if this war were to last. Diplomacy, discussion, exchange remain the only means of finding an acceptable solution. Without compromise, nothing will be possible, and we run the risk of things getting out of hand at any moment. This powder keg could have terrible consequences.”
While he did condemn Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as both a “serious” event and “a failure”, the gist of his intervention was that Russia was our neighbour, and that with our shared history, “we need them and they need us”.
He also took a big swing at the Ukraine’s EU membership prospects, namely that Ukraine should “remain neutral” and that the EU was making “false promises that will not be kept. Like those that have been made in Turkey for decades”.
“Not just because Ukraine is not ready and does not meet the membership criteria. But because it must remain a neutral country. I don't see how this neutrality would be an insult. It could also be guaranteed by an international agreement providing for extremely strong security assurances, to protect it against any risk of new aggression.”
Now, due to the length of this interview, it’s hard to break this down in this Weekly Dispatch, however, there’s a very interesting position to be found here that is common amongst the French right, who tend to ascribe more to a Realist view of International Relations.
For the uninitiated: this is a view that gives agency primarily to states, and can be said to focus primarily on International Affairs being driven by Realpolitik, and if you want to learn more about this, comment below!
In his view, therefore, it makes sense for Great Powers to take charge of negotiations and divide up positions, as opposed to having more complex negotiations between various international actors, NGOs, and other agencies.
One important thing is that, despite having been valued by Emmanuel Macron as someone to listen to, Sarkozy has completely gone against the French President’s
Regardless, look out for a breakdown of this in the next week, where we’ll look at this in depth.
🇵🇫Darmanin declares war on economic monopolies
Continuing to build toward a presidential run in 2027, and having missed out on replacing Elisabeth Borne as Prime Minister, Gérald Darmanin has doubled down on his position as Minister of the Interior and Overseas territories.
A part of his wider strategy has become more and more obvious as time goes on: appealing to the average person as a defender of their physical and economic security, and this is where his most recent effort can be categorised.
Declaring that “there are too many economic monopolies overseas in general and in French Polynesia,” he announced that the French government will launch a mission to identify and fight against these sources of “very high prices”.
“I will launch a mission as soon as I return to Paris with Philippe Vigier, Minister of Overseas France, to take stock of the monopolies”
Currently in Papeete, the capital of French Polynesia, he began his visit this wednesday alongside with both Philippe Vigier and Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, the Minister of Sports and the Olympic Games, to not only discuss key climate and economic topics, but also to visit the site in Tahiti which will host the surfing events for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Regardless, he took a serious tone during his visit, making the following declaration during an interview on the local Polynésie la 1ère channel:
“I hear the president [of Polynesia] when he invites us to fight against economic monopolies. There are too many economic monopolies in Overseas France in general and in French Polynesia … We are going to propose to President [Moetai] Brotherson to fight together against these monopolies, because when there are monopolies, there are very high prices and when there are very high prices, it is the daily Polynesians who cannot to get by”
There’s also one very important point to note on this: the need for the French government to make more stronger efforts to support overseas territories.
Despite recent successes for the French state in various independence referenda, the reality is that many of these citizens feel a distance with the hexagon, and also feel they are not supported as well as they could be by the state.
This is why you’ve seen various ministers, and even the French president, increasing their visits to these territories, and why you will (hopefully) see more and more initiatives announced to support them in the way that they deserve to be supported as our fellow citizens.
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🇫🇷Weekly Dispatch - Sarkozy is back
It’s mind boggling (read exasperating) just how difficult it still seems for some people to understand that Putin cannot be trusted. Even politicians of the ranks of Ex-Presidents who were continuously humiliated by Putin during their tenure! How so many people still believe some sort of fairy tale in which a deal that sees Russia win territory, actually ends the conflict with Russia. That Putin can actually can be trusted. Even if Putin is toppled, whoever follows him needs to be treated with great suspicion. I find it difficult to digest when some media pundits or the general population still think this way. But Sarkozy. Incredible.
Speaking about economic monopolies, I have heard statements from some of my liberal contacts that the French state is very monopolistic x)