Globalization and the Eu: Will France Integrate and Cooperate?
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Charles de Gaulle stated: “Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.” Throughout history, France and its people have upheld an age-old tradition of fiery, strong nationalism and patriotism under the ideas of Charles de Gaulle. However, in recent years, this nationalism has come under fire by the persistent push for European integration by various parties in France and the European Union. Since the passing of the Schuman Declaration in 1950, which established the European Coal and Steel Company, integration has been key in the development of European countries, although becoming increasingly controversial as it becomes more in-depth (Guyomarch, Machin and Ritchie 4). In the 21st century, France has increasingly seen its own nationalistic values, found in legacies such as Gaullism, being compromised by the push for European integration spearheaded by the EU. This compromise of values, combined with the lack of a bipartisan system and large-scale protests, has created a huge political backlash that is currently the number-one political challenge in France.
Since the 1960s, intellectual and political leaders such as Charles de Gaulle have strongly advocated Frances independence from the rest of Europe. Gaullism is defined in the Wikipedia online encyclopedia as “a desire for Frances independence from foreign power.” This is the basic ideology of the French people, or at least until recently. The idea of European or global integration began to become mainstream only in 1992, with the passing of the Maastricht Treaty, which was the first major push towards a formal European integration. In true spirit of French nationalism, only 51% of citizens who voted on this treaty voted to ratify it (Flood 57). From this rose extreme division between those who supported European integration and those who did not. The main reason for the ratification of this treaty is because with the signing of the treaty, a new, international currency was to be created by 2000. Those who opposed this treaty opposed the idea of an international economy, specifically international interest rates (Guyomarch, Machin and Ritchie 8). Those who rose up against this international integration began to adopt the idea of “Euroscepticism”, which is defined as “Doubt or hostility concerning the advance of European integration (Flood 41).” The citizens who opposed integration formed a far-left political party to mobilize against the globalization called Attac (Association pour une taxation des transactions financiиres pour laide aux citoyens) (Waters 855). This group is spearheaded by French intellectuals from universities, press and political circles (860). This group is increasing in popularity as the obvious flaws in EU planning are becoming more evident. One-fifth of the total French population aligned with anti-EU far-left in the 2002 presidential election (Drake 5,6). This increasing dissent is causing a huge rift in French political life. With the creation of various political parties, notably Attac, to battle this increasing international integration, the already large field of political parties has grown to support this dissent.
The most recent elections for the European Parliament in France proved to be an interesting one. Six parties received over one million of the 17,168,681 votes cast. The Socialist Party received 29%, the Union for a Popular Movement received 17%, The Union for French Democracy received 12%, The National Front received 10%, The Verts (Greens) received 7.5%, and the Various Right received 9%. All of these parties received seats in the European Parliament based on the proportion of the votes they received, each holding more than one seat (Drake 7). Weve talked in Foreign Governments class about how a multi-party system often has trouble agreeing on different issues. Its clear that with 6 French parties alone holding more than one seat in the European Parliament, ideas on degrees of integration will vary. Unfortunately, with 6 parties just from France, the many different parties from other countries will also have plans and proposals for European Integration. With all of these dissenting views in the European Parliament, it will be hard, if not impossible, to agree on anything in a forward direction.
In French national politics, there also has been a growth of political parties, especially since the passing of the Maastricht treaty (Buffotot and Hanley 135). There has been an increase in the overall percentage of votes cast for parties supporting Eurosceptic positions. Many extreme right-wing parties have also started to adopt these platforms (Startin 65). The most notable party that has risen up against the EU is the Attac group, which has already been mentioned. This extreme left-wing party has seen almost immediate success in a relatively short period of time (Waters 855). The success of the group is undoubtedly due to the place of intellectuals in the group (855). Attac has rallied and mobilized its members around political protest and has been successful in overturning some international agreements that may ultimately harm the overall sovereignty of France. Indeed, it is in the French peoples nature to “revolutionalize” when they believe actions are unjust (Flood 45).
Of the original six members of the European Commission, the original policy-making group behind European integration, French public opinion is the least enthusiastic (Guyomarch, Machin, and Ritchie 96). Historically, the French have been revolutionary and alternative in nature. In 1998,