Resistance to Neoliberalism in France

Abstract

While the Right's victory in the 2007 French presidential and legislative elections have further tilted the relationship of forces against those millions of men, women, students and youth who have taken to the streets in recent years against neoliberal reforms, it would be premature to declare the definitive triumph of neoliberalism in France. President Sarkozy faces two major difficulties. The first is the breadth of the resistance to neoliberalism in France, and the eroded political legitimacy of the neoliberal project on a global scale. In the first part of our essay we explore the strengths and weaknesses of resistance to neoliberalism in France--focusing on the cycle of anti-liberal struggles and critical thinking that began with the massive strike and protest movement of late 1995, and the striking resilience of anti-neoliberal resistance since that time. The second difficulty Sarkozy faces is the particular character of his victory. Precisely in order to reckon with the depth of anti-neoliberal feeling in France, Sarkozy's neoliberal fervour often takes a back seat to neoconservative and populist appeals to xenophobic and authoritarian sentiments. Indeed, his victory depended quite heavily on a strategy aimed at obscuring socio-economic questions and capturing the electorate of Jean- Marie Le Pen's neofascist Front National. Though very much a part of the right-wing political establishment going back many years, and tied into the country's most powerful industrial and media interests, Sarkozy has also succeeded in portraying himself as an outsider poised to rescue France from crisis and various real or imagined internal and external threats.