7 June: the French have given their verdict on Europe!
It’s a first! For the past thirty years, voters have not really felt very clear about the purpose of the European Parliament elections, and so those who did go out to vote tended to use them as an opportunity to express their dissatisfaction with the government of the day. Even in 2004, the unpopularity of Jacques Chirac and the government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin won the PS (French Socialist Party) twice as many votes and seats as the UMP (Union for a Popular Movement). It was this tradition which – because it was the easy thing to do, and also out of sheer laziness – led the socialist party and, more surprisingly, François Bayrou, to campaign in this year’s election on an ‘anti-government’ ticket.
This strategy has backfired on them spectacularly. The socialists have lost nearly half their seats in the European Parliament, while MoDem has experienced a crushing defeat.
The fact is that the public has by now realised, more so than many political leaders, just how quickly history has moved on. The way in which Nicolas Sarkozy, during the French Presidency of the European Union, managed to tackle the biggest crises of our time – the war between Russia and Georgia, the financial crisis, the recession, climate change – showed that the major issues of the age were now to be decided at European level. The facts speak for themselves: sovereigntism has now become pointless. Nobody can seriously argue that tackling these major issues should involve ‘less Europe’. Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Hungary, the Baltic countries, and even increasingly the British, bitterly regret having put off joining the euro before the financial crisis broke. The colourful Philippe de Villiers was the only candidate elected out of 532 from the new Eurosceptic family ‘Libertas’, which had set its sights on winning no less than 100 seats across Europe! His Irish ally, Declan Ganley, the ‘hero’ of the Irish ‘no’ vote on the Lisbon Treaty, did not even get the minimum number of votes to be elected in his own country. As for Jean-Marie Le Pen, he can now concentrate on sorting out the dispute over his own political succession between his daughter Marine and his former heir apparent, Bruno Gollnisch: these three are now the Front National’s only remaining survivors in the Strasbourg Parliament.
This was my fourth European election campaign, and for the first time ever I have had voters coming up to ask me about Europe itself. They clearly understood the importance of this new level of government, but felt ill-informed and wanted to know how their vote might influence the course of events. Never before have I had to conduct such an educational and non-partisan campaign. I have no regrets, either as a citizen or as a candidate.
This time voters have clearly chosen to give their verdict on Europe more than anything else. They overwhelmingly supported the resolve and clear-sightedness with which Nicolas Sarkozy and his government steered its Presidency of the Union through the toughest period of the financial crisis, and they hoped that this same energy would continue for the next five years. They liked the alternative programme offered by Europe Ecologie, whose candidates, headed by Daniel Cohn-Bendit, deserve credit for focusing only on European issues. Yet the socialist party, paralysed by deep divisions on Europe which still persist four years after the 2005 referendum, had little to say. François Bayrou completely sidestepped the issue, choosing the worst possible moment to walk away from the confusion on Europe that was so central to the identity of the centrist political family, in order to pursue his personal quarrel with the current incumbent at the Elysée.
In doing this, the voters have demonstrated great political maturity. They no longer confuse the elections. In 2008, voters in the municipal elections ignored the outcome of the presidential elections: they knew that different issues were at stake. In 2009, the issues were different again. This was a vote on Europe, and voters ignored traditional national or local divisions: the UMP came out in the lead in every département and in all the major towns in Aquitaine, including in the Landes, which everyone thought would be ‘dark pink’ forever. In 2010, the regional elections will be a different exercise again.
These comments may seem very optimistic in view of the low turnout (only one in three voters made the effort), but there is every indication that Europe will soon no longer be seen as complex and obscure, once the Lisbon Treaty is finally adopted. Next time around, people will be asked to elect a Parliament with full legislative powers, and through this, even choose ‘Mr’ or ‘Mrs Europe’, just as they would choose their mayor in France or our neighbouring countries would choose their Prime Minister. The issue will be as simple and clear as it is in national or municipal elections, and turnout will therefore be correspondingly higher. The age of a democratic Europe, the people’s Europe, the citizens’ Europe, can finally begin!
Alain Lamassoure, 8 June 2009