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This past summer I wrote about the great hope I had in Nicolas Sarkozy to restore capitalism to France and by doing so, save its lagging economy. I had read transcripts of his translated speeches, saw him on television multiple times and read enough articles about him to feel that he was somebody who could truly enact change in that once great nation which is slowly being marginalized in the global arena. I stand here today disappointed that this man who had such great rhetoric on the campaign trail failed to live up to his promises.

Sarkozy has proven to be a protectionist in his trade policies and just as socialist, in most other policies, as the machinery he claimed he would tear down. His popularity in France has dropped 13% and, instead of sticking to his convictions, he has simply given in. This past Monday he spoke to steelworkers and declared he would save their plant from being shutdown, on Wednesday he promised bonuses to low-income pensioners and, in response to a slow down by taxi drivers, the same day ended plans to deregulate that service. All of these are far cries from his campaign days where he gained widespread support for wanting to significantly reduce government regulation and handouts, and create a more privatized economy. Obviously this is not the man the French people thought they would be getting when they overwhelmingly voted for him and gave his party a considerable majority in the National Assembly.

The biggest disappointment, however, has been his handling of the Societe General (SocGen) situation. SocGen is a major French bank that has recently experienced tremendous losses. Sarkozy has been adamant that only another French company may bid for the bank. This ignorant protectionist view will do more harm than good for SocGen and the French economy as a whole. SocGen will not get the best price if foreign companies are not allowed to bid on it, so the shareholders will be injured. The French economy will take a blow as investors who may have believed in Sarkozy’s rhetoric about opening France to globalism will realize that he is no different than previous French protectionist politicians, and invest their money elsewhere.

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The France’s Dissapointment: Nicholas Sarkozy by New School Politics, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.