Building bridges

France has a new President. At the end of a long electoral campaign, full of surprises, which filled the whole country with passion, Nicolas Sarkozy was elected with a clear majority, with over 53 % of the vote. It’s a long time since the Head of State has been elected with so large a majority. The voter turnout (over 85%) was remarkable in a country where the vote is not compulsory. All this confirms the basic trend in the first round, fifteen days ago, namely a mass vote, a clear choice and the revival of people’s interest in politics. Democracy is truly the great victor of these French elections. After many years of crisis, of votes in support of extremist parties, of rejection of Europe, of introspection and reaction, this is extremely comforting. The attitude of the French seems to be becoming more positive: passion and mass participation in the vote, support for democratic candidates, relegation of extremists to the fringes, and a vote for clear political projects. The new President, in fact, was elected on a clear project for government. He well represents the France that emerged in this election: he’s a man who belongs to a new generation, that of post-war France, who was born into a family of immigrants, and who thus represents French diversity, a man of the right, without complexes, who formulated a right-wing programme and yet succeeded in winning the backing of a majority for it. Now we need to await his first decisions: choice of the Prime Minister, and formation of the government, which will give more precise indications about his intentions.Evidently, the institutional system, with selection in the run-off and absence of the proportional system in the legislative elections, favours the clash between left and right, and leaves little room for a more serene and nuanced debate on the many problems whose solutions can neither be of the right nor of the left, but can only come from agreement between men and women of good will. That’s why the main challenge next month will be the election of the National Assembly which will either confirm the presidential elections or not. For France now finds herself in a rather odd situation: she has a new President and a new way forward is being opened before her, but the forthcoming general elections in a month or so remain to be contested: a kind of middle way. There are three main challenges: first, whether the choice of 6 May is confirmed through a strong parliamentary majority of the right, whether voted en masse or not, which would permit the President to govern without allies with his own party alone, or forces him to seek a deal with others; second, whether the Socialist party succeeds in escaping from its archaic logic of union of the left – now problematic with a Communist party reduced to less than 2% of the vote – and opens itself to other more moderate areas of the country, thus forming a modern social-democratic force; and third, whether the new party of François Bayrou, the Democratic Movement, succeeds in holding onto 18% of the vote (though its electorate is far from compact), electing a sizeable number of deputies, in spite of the electoral system now in force, and finally having an impact on the political scene. The real unknown quantity of the weeks ahead is the capacity of the parties and French politicians, beginning with the President of the Republic, to understand the profound message launched by the electorate in the first round: don’t cut the country into two, but build bridges between the one side and the other, open chances for dialogue, to solve the many difficulties of French society, and thus make a contribution also to Europe.