“Europe’s problem is that now it must become even more united than it was before,” remarked Marc-Olivier PADIS, editor-in-chief of the French magazine Esprit, at a meeting at YE Bookstore.
The discussion topic was formulated as “Democracy and the project of a united Europe.” The guest shared about the challenges which, in his opinion, Europe is now facing, and touched upon the presidential election campaign in France.
Esprit has been published for 82 years. For the recent 50 years, says Padis, the magazine has played a central role for French politics. Esprit provides his readers with food for thought, concerning the political, international, cultural, and social developments of today. In the 1970s-1980s the magazine paid considerable attention to the Soviet bloc countries, in particular, the dissident movement, a part of which had immigrated to France.
Answering The Day’s question about a recipe for Europe to avoid the threat of disintegration, Padis answered that the key is more integration, but at the moment this is impossible due to the lack of trust in the population.
“I guess now we, Europeans, are paying for the crisis of 2008. Today, it is a sink or swim situation: either integration is deeper, or we have to face defeat,” he admitted. Describing the global economic crisis, Padis noted that it is also the matter of “decision-making crisis, and legitimacy crisis on European level.” Speaking of the European Union, he observed that since 2008 Europe has been changing rapidly, and still is – which can be seen from the fact of budget cuts in many member countries.
France and Germany spent a lot of time and effort to demonstrate that they are friends and take joint decisions, but according to Padis, this is a false impression, since there are many topics where the French and the Germans differ, “which is very obvious on the matters of energy.” It became especially evident after the disaster at Fukushima, Japan, when Germany chose to close down its nuclear power plants. On the contrary, France decided that having more plants was even more crucial than ever before. In Padis’ opinion, Merkozy (a nickname coined by the press to refer to Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel’s political tandem) does not prove that “Franco-German concord is as strong as it looks from the outside.”
Another difference between France and Germany lies in their perception of the role of currency. According to Padis, this is a very important criterion, since currency “is not only an exchange tool, it means trust, if you will.” The discrepancy between France and Germany is also measured in “time management.” “In France we like to take political decisions as fast as possible. Presidency is really conducive to this. Conversely, in Germany the decision-making process is very slow, and is preceded by numerous negotiations. But when the decision is finally taken, consensus in Germany is very strong. Meanwhile, in France the decision may be revised,” shared Padis. According to him, the French do not believe in the usefulness of such negotiations and look at them as a mere waste of time.
The question of electioneering in France was not overlooked, either. “Nicolas Sarkozy is getting a lot of personal attention. He is a kind of politician people will have a distinct opinion of, positive or negative. And such difference divides the society. A considerable part of the left-wing electorate will mobilize effort to get rid of Sarkozy. When his major rival Dominique Strauss-Kahn had to leave the political arena [due to a sex scandal. – Author], the next candidate rose as high as Strauss-Kahn had stood. However, this suggests that the choice was induced by the devotion of the other candidate.”
According to Padis, Sarkozy’s main opponent in this election, socialist Francois Hollande, supports the introduction of new mechanisms to ensure the euro’s financial stability. However, at the moment “it is not yet clear how he sees the process of negotiations with the troubled EU countries” (i.e., Greece, Spain, and Portugal). “I do not think that Hollande is a Euroskeptic. He was the first secretary of the Socialist party, which he led after it had split in two due to quarrels over the common European constitution. But he failed to offer his own vision of Europe, which would reconcile the two camps within his party. And this is Hollande’s great weakness,” says Padis.
On the matter of shootings in Toulouse, he said that it is not yet clear which of the two candidates can profit from it. Meanwhile, it can result in a certain group of the population totally withdrawing from voting. “At any rate, it is going to have repercussions on the first round, but will not affect the second. The incident resembles the events of 20 years ago, when hostages were taken in Neuilly-sur-Seine where Sarkozy was mayor. He acted promptly then,” recollected Padis. Although it may seem strange in a democratic election, one has to admit that “it takes a lot of strength to be able to integrate such events into one’s political campaign,” just like Sarkozy does.
