The Misanthrope’s Comer

THERE are those who give off just a little whiff of derision at the behavior of the French in the national plebiscite on Sunday. Gallic lordliness on all matters great and small isn’t really sustained by the historical record. They began it 200 years ago with a bloody revolution, followed by the dictatorship of Napoleon, the surrender to Bismarck, the bloodletting of the First World War, and the diplomatic and military ineptitude that brought on Nazi occupation. The republic was pretty down and out when President de Gaulle jacked up its glory with the Fifth Republic. And a centerpiece of it, a seven-year term for the president of France, has now been revised at the polls. What smarted was not the rejection of the seven-year term in favor of five years, but the utter indifference of the French voting public to a civic exercise.

The reform was backed by the two principal political organs, President Chirac’s Gaullist party and Prime Minister Jospin’s Socialist party. These antipodean political entities had engaged in cohabitation (the French word for it) for three years. In 1997 President Chirac committed one of those great political blunders, absolutely counting on one result, and begetting a different one. (Milosevic has just finished doing the same thing: calling an election in full confidence that he would win it, and then losing.) Rather than ratify the call of Chirac that the voters reaffirm him and his policies, the socialists swept in and have been sharing the bed all this time.

About the Author

Florence King

Florence King was a contributing editor of National Review.

Featured Tags

THERE are those who give off just a little whiff of derision at the behavior of the French in the national plebiscite on Sunday. Gallic lordliness on all matters great and small isn’t really sustained by the historical record. They began it 200 years ago with a bloody revolution, followed by the dictatorship of Napoleon, the surrender to Bismarck, the bloodletting of the First World War, and the diplomatic and military ineptitude that brought on Nazi occupation. The republic was pretty down and out when President de Gaulle jacked up its glory with the Fifth Republic. And a centerpiece of it, a seven-year term for the president of France, has now been revised at the polls. What smarted was not the rejection of the seven-year term in favor of five years, but the utter indifference of the French voting public to a civic exercise.

The reform was backed by the two principal political organs, President Chirac’s Gaullist party and Prime Minister Jospin’s Socialist party. These antipodean political entities had engaged in cohabitation (the French word for it) for three years. In 1997 President Chirac committed one of those great political blunders, absolutely counting on one result, and begetting a different one. (Milosevic has just finished doing the same thing: calling an election in full confidence that he would win it, and then losing.) Rather than ratify the call of Chirac that the voters reaffirm him and his policies, the socialists swept in and have been sharing the bed all this time.