From our Parisian Friend
Scott recently posted about the strikes in France, citing an NPR report from a Paris correspondent who said, among other things: “This strike/protest is only using the pensions as a trigger to fight against nearly all the economic privatization and public sector cuts undertaken by French President Nicolas Sarkozy—and thereby turning the country more toward a Dutch or British market model.” I’m not sure I have a lot to add to this; however, I did spend this afternoon at a conference in which about half the folks discussing French history in our little room at the Hyatt had actually come there from France. So I asked a few of them what’s the deal with the strikes, which they said have brought life to a standstill in France. The short answer: basically what Scott said.
Paraphrasing a bit, a friend, who is fortunate enough to divide her time between Paris, Tel Aviv and upstate New York, told me:
“Look, nobody really cares when railway workers get to retire, or whatever. What they’re upset by is that Sarkozy has said several times that he wants to radically change the economic model of the country, liberalize the economy, privatize services- all that sort of thing. There are plenty of pundits who say that these are the changes that France needs to boost the economy, and there are problems with socialized services- although they have the best health care system I’ve ever used. At any rate, what you have to understand when you see these protesters or rioters on the news, and what they are not telling you here, is that they have reason to believe that their entire way of life, even if it is imperfect, is going to be changed radically- actually done away with- without their support, and they’re afraid. It’s not terribly hard to understand.”
There you have it. Basically what NPR’s Paris correspondent reported was verified by Rufus’s Paris friend. She also noted that Sarkozy’s recent ham-fisted treatment of the Roma didn’t endear him to anyone, and she suspects that some might be playing a part with some of the rioters.
I second that the French have the best healthcare system I’ve ever used, although since the other two are the US and the UK I might not be holding them to the highest standard.
The thing about the Roma, though – I’m afraid I’m pretty sure it is appealing to a lot of people. In my experience there’s a constituency for xenophobia everywhere, and travelers in general are pretty easy to demonize.
As for this “changing their whole way of life” thing, though – Sarkozy has been president for quite a while now and I’m not really seeing France dramatically transformed. I’m pretty sure its not going to be. Some tendencies – dirigisme, arrogance, and lunch, for example – are too firmly embedded to really change. Thatcher and Reagan only did what they did in the UK and US because those tendencies were there and pretty powerful already. They are not there, or much more subdued, in France.Report
@Simon K, Yeah, I think people are unnecessarily worried about Sarkozy achieving much, although like some have noted here, France is a very (small-c) conservative country in a lot of ways. Change is often resisted until the worst possible moments.
The Roma aren’t exactly beloved by anyone, but she didn’t think that won Sarko any votes from Le Pen, which I thought it might have. Her point with the protesters was that perhaps some of them are Algerian immigrants who are upset about the Roma. They’re very much isolated in France and, in spite of the fact that they’re all French citizens, she thinks they might be taking this as a sign that their citizenship could be taken away. I don’t know if that’s right, but it’s an interesting theory.Report
Health care: I make no secret of the fact that I received superlative care in the French system, and it cost me a pittance. I think it would be very shortsighted, however, to stop our analysis there, as so many seem to do. In particular two things stand out — the long-term sustainability of the system, which will be severely taxed as the population ages, and the question not only of relative excellence, but absolute. It could well be that their (essentially socialized) system is better than our (mixed, highly confused, perversely incentivized) system, but that a socialist system still isn’t the best one in the long term.Report
@Jason Kuznicki, I think she was just using health care as an example. She says there are a lot of French people who think everything is getting cut or privatized- for example, she said there a lot of people think all the arts funding, the public television channels, museums, cultural patrimony stuff- all of that is supposedly getting cut. To me that sounds totally unrealistic and more than a bit paranoid, but I think part of the tension over there is that you have a huge state system that is unsustainable in the current form, so that changes have to be made, and somewhat hysterical fears that any change signals that an entirely new economic system is now being instituted over the entire country. See also: the US health care debate!Report
Anecdotal vindication!Report