Is France’s influence abroad still measured by its presidential elections?
It’s not just because of this week’s headline in “Courrier International”: “Ouch, France votes.”
One only has to look at European newspapers or global news channels to be convinced. For CNN, which sent the charming Hala Gorani to Paris, the real news of this election campaign was “the indecision until the last moment of 40% of the voters.” The journalist saw this as a consequence of the emergence of a new generation of politicians to which the French are not accustomed. German channel ARD echoed this sentiment, emphasizing the contradictions in the first round polls, reflecting a general uncertainty that weighed, according to our colleague from beyond the Rhine, on the vote. CNN followed the main candidates but was only able to directly interview François Bayrou of the UDF in English, and he handled it quite well. However, the American network refrained from drawing any conclusions about the candidate’s availability. The Austrian television ORF showed a preference for the same François Bayrou, presented as the most European of the contenders.
But the palm for comments, generally critical, obviously goes to foreign newspapers. Some of them have engaged – or interfered, as diplomatic language would put it – in the national campaign. “The Economist” outright called for a vote for Nicolas Sarkozy, while the Brussels daily “Le Soir” clearly denounced the “dangerous” side of the UMP candidate. Cited by “Courrier International”, other media lambasted the socialist candidate, like a Greek news outlet complaining about her “contempt for journalists” or her perpetual “refusal to respond to interviews”, resulting in a clear advantage given to Nicolas Sarkozy by the foreign press according to “O Kosmos tou Ependity”. Some foreign newspapers also did not hesitate to analyze the candidates according to their national concerns: Milan’s “Il Foglio” headlined “Bayrou lacks drive” regarding the UDF candidate’s centrist opening, seen as a utopia by Italians. South American newspapers, influenced by the Chavez wave, were surprised that a northern hemisphere country had so many far-left candidates, while “Le Quotidien d’Oran” tried to understand the reasons for the probable Le Pen vote among many North African immigrants in the suburbs. The same goes for the Israeli “Ha’aretz” regarding “the Jewish Frontists”. Meanwhile, Al Jazeera enhanced its team in Paris, whose leader explained on a radio station “The lesson of democracy through the plurality of candidates he was trying to transmit to spectators in Qatar.” Fundamentally, a Hamburg daily “Die Zeit” sharply criticized “the concentration of powers in the hands of the president,” while a British Labour MP contrasted in “Le Figaro” “the ideological archaisms of the left and the dreams of grandeur of the right.” The immediate reactions of the international press to the first round results hint at it: between strict political analysis and mathematical analysis, speculations are set to run rampant.
