25 May 2017
It’s My Party
I’m the leader, I’m the leader…
By Neil Tidmarsh
I’m the leader, I’m the leader, I’m the leader of the gang I am… until the music stops, that is. And political parties all around the world have been playing frantic games of musical chairs all week. Leaders in, leaders out, it’s enough to make the head spin. Let’s pause for a moment and try and catch up. Let’s remind ourselves who’s sitting in the boss’s seat before things start moving again.
Paris set the fashion, as it traditionally does. Yes, I blame the French, as ever. They started it, with the party leadership elections which preceded the Presidential elections. The Republicans went first. Remember Sarkozy and Juppé? One of them was certain to become leader – and then Fillon overtook them both on the outside. Ah, Fillon, came in a flash, went in a flash. So, who’s the leader of the French Republican party now? Come on, come on, think how important the question was just a month or two ago. Someone? Anyone? No? Well, it’s… hang on a second, just got to look it up. Right. François Baroin, mayor of Troyes. OK? And remember who won the Socialist leadership? That’s it, Benoît Hamon. He’s still there, though having lost badly in the presidential elections, the music may stop sometime soon for him, too.
And the man who did win the presidential election wasn’t even a party member, let alone a party leader; he didn’t even have a political party to lead. Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche! movement has of course been transformed into a political party since his victory – it’s now La République en Marche. But he’s not its leader. He’s not even the leader of En Marche any more. He stepped down as soon as he became president. The president has to be above party politics. Detached, aloof, impartial, like a king. Indeed, M Macron was criticised this week for his regal style: his inauguration “looked more like a British-style coronation” according to France-Inter radio; his far-left rival for the presidency Jean-Luc Mélenchon proposed demonstrations against “the new presidential monarch”; and Le Dauphiné Libéré newspaper called him “the new king of the republic”. If some wondered if En Marche’s acronym EM was code for Emmanuel Macron, they might now be wondering if La République en Marche’s acronym – REM – is code for Le Roi Emmanuel Macron. L’Etat, c’est moi. So who is the leader of the new party? Er, one moment, just got to look that up…
Meanwhile, as the President of France stepped down as party leader, this week the President of Turkey became the leader of his party again, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). President Erdogan founded the AKP sixteen years ago, but had to step down as leader when he became president in 2014; as in France, the head of state was not allowed to take part in party politics. But his victory in the recent referendum proposing constitutional reform will change all that; the president is to become an active political figure with executive powers, while the role of the parliament is to be reduced. He officially resumed the leadership of the AKP at an extraordinary congress in Ankara, with the party chairman, prime minister Binali Yildirim, stepping down to make way for him (Erdogan’s name was the only one proposed). In reality, Erdogan has been active politically for the AKP even while president; few believed that anyone else was really in charge; as he himself said to the party faithful packing the stadium to welcome his official return, his absence had been “only a legal parting”.
In Ireland this week, out went prime minister Enda Kelly as leader of the Fine Gael party. He had attempted to govern with a minority after last year’s inconclusive elections, and had narrowly escaped a vote of no confidence. The party’s new leader will be announced in a week’s time, but social protection minister (and incidentally Ireland’s first openly gay minister) Leo Varadkar has already emerged as the favourite.
In Austria last week, the leader of the conservative Austrian People’s Party (OVP) Reinhold Mitterlehner suddenly resigned. The OVP is part of a coalition government with the Social Democratic Party; Mr Mitterlehner was vice-chancellor as well, but he’d had enough of party in-fighting and rumours about his future while trying to play his part in government at the same time. This week, the OVP appointed foreign minister Sebastian Kurz as its new leader. Mr Kurz is only 30 years old; he was the world’s youngest foreign minister when appointed three years ago. With elections predicted for this autumn – the coalition is unlikely to survive for very much longer – he may well rise further to become Chancellor and lead his country before he’s much older.
In South Africa, President Zuma’s grip on his leadership of the ANC party has been under threat for some months. He’s managed to cling on, in spite of allegations of corruption, scandalous rumours, bad local election results, and the dismissal of the internationally respected finance minister Pravin Gordhan which led to the downgrading of the country’s credit status to junk. But this week there were reports that party officials would discuss his removal at a special meeting this weekend, so watch this space. The reports were denied by the ANC’s spokesman Zizi Kodwa, but they were enough to lift the value of the rand – up 1.5% against the dollar.
Lastly, a new political party was born in Italy this week. Its leader? None other than Silvio Berlusconi. His new party is called the Movement For Animals. A party for party animals? For political big beasts? For “rutting chimpanzees”, to borrow that wonderful description of a different disgraced politician once again? No. It seems that Silvio is slowing down and getting softer in his old age. He has become an animal lover, devoted to Dudu, the white Maltese terrier belonging to his 31 year old fiancée, and surrounding himself with sheep, lambs and goats at his villa on Sardinia, and begging people not to eat lamb on Easter Sunday. All together now – ahhhhhhh. And he’s still the leader of the Forza Italia party, too. Well, I did say some months ago that Silvio is a man who always seems to get more than his fair share of everything.
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