Sarko? Segolène? U.S. Media Missing Out On Dynamic Presidential Election

It seems like we just rang in the New Year and already the battle for presidential contender is well underway. Obama? Clinton? Edwards? Giuliani? How much do we really care? As a registered voter and once-upon-a-time college activist, I used to wear my politics on my shirt. But now, I’m just not that interested anymore. Besides, there’s a much more interesting presidential election just around the corner in France. What you don’t know? I’m not surprised. However abundant coverage of the 2008 U.S. presidential election is locally, reporting on the French election has proved embarrassingly non-existent. If Katie Couric can’t be bothered to mention a G8 presidential election then she should just pack up, go back to NBC, and introduce party planning tips on the Today Show.

If I weren’t in Paris this past winter, I would have been in the dark myself. Let me fill you in. Chirac is on his way out. The two forerunners are Segolène Royale and Nicolas Sarkozy. Jean-Marie Le Pen, the French version of Pat Buchanan, is also in the race. Le Pen may be campaigning hard, but I think the French take him as seriously as we did Buchanan.

The favorite to win is Sarkozy, and I’m thrilled. He is a self-described Gaulist with a young energy and strong presence who wants to shake things up in the government. He reminds me of Tony Blair. Of course not everyone is as excited about him as I am. A French friend of mine in his sixties doesn’t see the appeal. “He doesn’t have the charisma of Chirac”, he tells me. I was puzzled. I didn’t realize Chirac had charisma. Truth be told, I never paid a good deal of attention to French politics until I was caught swimming in it. In Paris, it couldn’t be ignored. It was on the radio, in print, in conversation, and of course, on TV. TV - That’s what did it for me.

I caught Sarkozy on a French television special one night after dinner. The show was called “Un Question A Vous Poser” or literally “A Question to Ask You”. Despite my less than perfect French and jaded penchant for all things political, I was hooked. I was enthralled. Charisma? Sarkozy has it oozing out his suit and tie.

The format was Q & A with roughly 50 voters in amphitheatre-style seating while Sarkozy stood squarely on stage behind a podium. It was as if he faced a tiered firing squad. There was a host somewhere in the background. The show started at 8PM and lasted for nearly 3 hours. And this was primetime television.

The program was a great demonstration of how the French do democracy – with honesty, pride, and passion. There were questioners from the city as well as the country. Young and old. Married and single. Classy and classless. But that didn’t matter. They each had a question to ask their potential president.

Questions ranged from social security and retirement, to the extended workweek and racism against French-Arabs. Questioners, for the most part, had complete free reign over the microphone. Sure, they had chosen their topics beforehand and provided this information, along with their demographics, to the producers. The host called on questioners accordingly. But this was it as far as organization goes. Things did tend to get out of hand.

Case in point. France does not approve of gay adoption. Neither does Sarkozy. Three passion-filled gentlemen openly disagreed with him. One asked how he could champion equal rights for all French people, and blatantly deny those same rights for homosexuals. They put him on the spot. They interrupted him when he spoke. Consistently. It was great. The host didn’t interject, and there was no Sarkozy PR wizard ready to pull the plug. Lack of censorship on French TV isn’t just naked women on commercials. It is true democracy in action.

Such occasions also provide the ultimate opportunity for great political contenders to shine. And shine Sarkozy did. He asked to defend himself. He didn’t squirm at a touchy issue like gay adoption. He held on to his convictions. Pandering was nil. What an honest politician.

That episode wasn’t the only one where Sarkozy seemed to face a firing squad. But for nearly three hours, he really held his own. It didn’t only make for good democracy, it made for good television.


One of the most salient lessons I learned in college was to question authority. You may think this is the framework for anarchy, but it’s not. It’s the framework for democracy. It’s the framework for cooperative government. France has come a long way since the French Revolution. Now instead of using a guillotine to question their leaders, they use their words. Bravo! Now this makes for politics I can get interested in. I just hope U.S. media gets in gear before it’s all over.