Wannabe mayors and presidents

January 15, 2008

Campaigning for the local elections here in March has only just started, but already it’s promising to provide political fireworks, with a whole heap of cabinet ministers running to fill the nation’s town halls.

Everyone it seems just wants to be mayor.

It’s all part of a peculiarly French tradition allowing government officials to collect as many political mandates as possible – almost a case of the more the merrier.

But while it was frowned upon to a certain extent under the last French president, Jacques Chirac, the current incumbent, Nicolas Sarkozy seems to have gone wild in his enthusiasm for encouraging his ministers to “go to the polls”.

Apparently it’ll allow them to keep in touch with grass roots politics, even if they won’t actually be able to spend any time in their local wards and are in many cases being parachuted into safe seats to gain political legitimacy.

Among those who have not held elected office of any kind and will be facing voters for the first time are three frontline ministers; Rachida Dati (justice), Christine Albanel (culture) and Christine Lagarde (finance). In fact when looked at as a whole, nearly two-thirds of the 33-strong government is running for election.

With the energetic and seemingly omnipresent Sarkozy at the helm, the governing centre–right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP) is aiming high in the local elections.

Sarkozy himself has even promised to pay personal whirlwind visits to several cities and towns to provide his backing for some candidates, presumably squeezing in the time between trips to the Middle East, India, Eastern Europe and a quick job at the registry office (if it hasn’t already happened)

The strategy could prove embarrassing if the UMP doesn’t do well. It has promised to “politicise” the local elections, and in doing so has almost defined them as a poll on government policy. If huge chunks of the country – and especially the major cities - return Socialist councils, then the government (and Sarkozy) would have to engage in an awful lot of doublespeak to disguise the real meaning of the results.

And then of course there is the risk that some ministers might actually lose, in which case they would probably be expected to give up their cabinet jobs. It happened just last June in the country’s national elections when the newly appointed transport and environment minister, Alain Juppé, lost his parliamentary seat.

Meanwhile over on the Left, the local elections promise to be interesting for completely different reasons.

With nothing better to do and time on her hands, wannabe Socialist leader, Segolene Royal is marshalling her troops and throwing her not inconsiderable popular weight behind a number of candidates as she hits the campaign trail.

Royal is not actually standing for election herself, but that clearly isn’t stopping her getting involved as she has her sights firmly set on becoming the party’s leader and once again being its presidential candidate in the 2012 race.

As usual she is having to face some stinging criticism from within her own party’s ranks. She should be used to it by now, with the latest one coming in an open letter to the leftwing national daily “Liberation” from a former Socialist prime minister, Michel Rocard.

He insists that the party is in complete intellectual and political disarray and needs to get its house well and truly in order before nominating a future presidential candidate. Royal, although blessed with plenty of charisma just isn’t up to the job of leading the Socialists, he maintains. And he would rather the party set aside the debate on a future leader until 2011.

While Royal is happily hitting the hustings at a national level and taking shots at Sarkozy and his government whenever she can, her main rival to her party’s top job is fighting other battles.

Bertrand Delanoë is the current mayor of Paris and as such cannot really enter the national fray until the local elections are over. Should he do well and gain a resounding victory in the capital again he will have a firm base from which to challenge Royal.

But if he doesn’t do as well as expected, it would be a major setback to any national ambitions he has.

Local elections can just be SO boring sometimes.

Persiflage