15 June 2017
I puke on them
All change in the French elections
by Richard Pooley
It was all too much for Nicolas Sarkozy’s former speechwriter. If Henri Guaino ever wrote anything memorable for his old boss, it will now be forgotten and replaced by what he said after his humiliating defeat in last Sunday’s first round of France’s parliamentary elections. Guaino has been in politics for over thirty years and was the Républicain MP for the third constituency of Yvelines, on the edge of Paris, in the last National Assembly. But he fell out with his party when he openly criticised their presidential candidate, François Fillon, for not standing down over allegations of corruption. So, unable to defend his own seat he offered himself to the voters in Paris’ second constituency, despite the fact he was up against the official candidate of Les Républicains, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet. She got 18.1%, well behind the 41.8% hoovered up by the candidate of President Macron’s La République en marche. Guaino got less than 5%. He let rip in his opinion of those who had failed to vote for him.
“I puke on them. On the one hand the bobos who wallow in their selfishness. On the other, the traditional Right, so hypocritical, fundamentally a little Pétainiste, who aren’t able to conform to the values they themselves proclaim. There are those who go to Mass, who make their children undergo religious instruction, and who then go and vote for someone who has been cheating by every means possible for the past thirty years.”
Not satisfied with excoriating his own party’s supporters and politicians, he launched into a diatribe against those standing for La République en marche. He called them “opportunists, wheeler-dealers and liars.”
After fondly recalling his political mentors of yesteryear, he admitted that “This is no longer my time.” It was perhaps unnecessary for him to add that he was leaving politics for ever.
The tumbrils are rolling across France for the majority of those politicians, like Guaino, like Fillon, like Sarkozy, who have strutted the national stage for the past thirty years. Most will disappear from national public life after this Sunday when La République en marche and its allies in Mouvement Démocrate are expected to win around 70% of the seats in the National Assembly.
If you read my article last week, you may want to know how well La République en marche’s Huguette Tiégna did in the first round of the constituency where I live in the Lot. Well, it looks as though she will be the MP for this once-safe Socialist Party (PS) seat. This is despite the fact that the PS candidate, Vincent Labarthe, is well-liked, politically-experienced and local. In contrast – what a contrast – she is a 35 –year old African immigrant who was born and brought up in Burkina Faso. Her grandfather died fighting in France’s colonial wars in south-east Asia. She only came to France eight years ago (and to this area in 2014). She is a senior research engineer in a one-year old manufacturing start-up with five patents to her name. She got 35.42% of the vote in the first round. Labarthe got 19.09%. It is still possible he could win. He might get all 15.45% who voted for the far left France insoumise, the 3.65% who went with the Ecologist Party, the 2.39% who are fans of the Communist Party and the 8.47% who voted for the anti-immigrant, far right Front National. But that still does not quite add up to half. A lot of these voters will stay at home. Anyway, does Tiégna look like an opportunist, wheeler-dealer or liar to you? She will win easily.
One of my neighbours was prepared to admit that he had voted for her, after we had finished discussing more important things over the garden fence (the health of each other’s’ tomatoes, the lack of rain and the likelihood of another heat wave). I asked him why. He didn’t give me a straight answer, which is unusual for him. But his reply explained something which has been puzzling me during this election. He gave me the impression that he had voted for her largely because he knew and respected her suppléant (substitute).
I had noticed that every poster and election leaflet had the faces and names of two people, not just that of the candidate. Sometimes, the picture of the person next to the candidate was Macron himself (to the fury of La République en marche members, some non-REM candidates put his photo next to theirs as well). But in this constituency, every candidate had a photo of their suppléant. As my neighbour explained, this is the person who will stand in for the MP when needed. I had thought that this was only in extremis, when the MP was seriously ill or had died. But no; the suppléant’s role is much wider and more significant than that. He or she gets paid a salary. It’s lower than the MP’s, of course, but still a substantial one. Should Tiégna become our MP, she will need to be up in Paris much of the time. She cannot attend every constituency event or meeting. Her suppléant can do so instead. He is Olivier Desbordes, a doctor turned opera director, who helps run the prestigious Music Festival of St Céré. I reckon he will find himself stretched to do both jobs well. Mr Macron’s plans for France are going to require Mme Tiégna to be in Paris for much of the year. Should he make her one of his ministers (and why not?), M. Desbordes will have to leave the music of St Céré to others and take her seat in the National Assembly.
I wonder what Henri Guaino will do with his new spare time. Write his memoirs? Should make for enjoyable reading.
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