Not Another May 68!

In an interview with Le Parisien, François Léotard, former chairman of the centrist UDF party in the 1980's, former minister of culture, and former minister of defense, discusses his recent 137-page publication entitled It Will End Badly, in which he excoriates the government of Nicolas Sarkozy. "I voted for Sarkozy, but I have not slept well ever since," he writes.

Here are just a few excerpts:

- What event induced you to take up your pen?

- I'll cite two. The first is a type of casualness regarding the European Union. You are taking the wrong road in France when you don't have the patience or the humility required for the construction of Europe. The second, is the general attitude towards foreigners. When you put together the pieces of the puzzle and examine all the decisions made for the past nine months - for example, the DNA tests - how can we not speak of xenophobia? A damaging situation for France and terribly unjust for all those who are victims of these measures. Why 25,000 expulsions of illegals per year? Arresting children, separating them from their parents. That is not France. (...)

Note: Léotard is clearly a partisan of the EU, but condemns Sarkozy's lack of "humility", to Léotard a sign that he does not care deeply about the EU but merely wants to strut on its stage.

- You condemn also the reign of the almighty dollar ("l'argent roi")...

- Ostentatious expenses, indifference to the painful experiences of individuals: I fear that all of that will bring about a resurgence of some form of class struggle. Already I see the beginnings of a true student proletariat. (...)

Notice how Sarkozy the egalitarian is being accused of imperial behavior. But that is in fact his nature: he uses his egalitarian doctrines as a way of appeasing violent elements in the country, while he himself becomes more and more tyrannical.

- You know Nicolas Sarkozy well. Yet you seem to be discovering him...

- We even had friendly relations! Let's say that, little by little, ever since he was minister of the interior, his true personality has been revealed. I believe that his ego, his thirst for power - strengthened by the great servility around him - is literally taking up all the space. I have always thought that as a general rule politicians deserved to be psychoanalyzed. His is a very interesting case. (...)

Léotard may have a point there.

- You say: "It will end badly."

- Yes, because it started badly! Having said that, if we are to believe the polls, the French are beginning to react. Naturally I hope that democracy will force a change in attitude at the top. But France is a volatile country in which changes in public opinion are unpredictable.

- Are the ingredients there for an explosion?

- On social matters, yes.

- Are you making an analogy, however remote, with May 68?

- In any case, I do not condemn May 68 as does the president. This sort of very right-wing stubbornness, when he says for example: "It was complete chaos." No. It was much more complicated than that. And today there is in Western youth a libertarian desire that I find very appealing...

- One that echos May 68?

- Absolutely. You see it in the mores, the language, the mode of dress... It is a positive thing. The young are in the throes of an impulse for liberty. We are at a point where there is excessive conformity in speech, we don't dare talk about things, we are afraid (...)

He doesn't specify what it is people are afraid of. But he is saying that a new and better May 68 may be on the horizon! Just what is needed to help France restore her traditions! Léotard seems to embody the confluence of economic libertarianism as symbolized by the EU and social liberalism. But then, doesn't Sarkozy?

François Léotard's remarks reveal as much about his own imprecise view of reality as they do about Sarkozy's. He implies that Sarkozy is inhumane towards immigrants, and a typical "right-winger" in his condemnation of May 68. Léotard cannot see that almost everything about Nicolas Sarkozy - his self-indulgence, his implacable anti-racism, his inability to fight crime despite his posturing about security, are the pure product of May 68.

Léotard is the son of a monarchist father, and was raised as a conservative. At one time he was a popular figure in France, and a potential candidate for president. His views are hard to pin down, as they seem to be a confused mix drawing on all political currents.