In the 2012 election of the E.U. state of France's legislative
Assembly following the election of Francois Hollande to replace the deeply unpopular
Sarkozy, “the Socialist Party won 280 seats and two allied parties won another
34, giving the parliamentary bloc 314 seats — considerably more than the 289
needed for a majority in the National Assembly. The Greens, who are part of the
government, have another 17 seats, while the far left won 10. Former President
Nicolas Sarkozy’s center-right Union for a Popular Movement won 194 seats and
its allies another 35 seats, bring the total to 229 seats, a sharp drop from
304.” The typical analysis ensuing from this result concerned the added
strength that Hollande would have in pushing the E.U. toward balancing
austerity with stimulus spending. The Prime Minister, Jean-Marc
Ayrault, said the government would work to fix public finances and reduce
unemployment. “The goal is to shift Europe toward growth and protect the euro
zone from speculation,” he said. “The task before us is immense.” At least the
Socialist Party would not have to deal with other parties on the left that are
less pro-E.U., as the Socialists had established an absolute majority in the
state’s Assembly. However, the
Socialists did not have the three-fifths majority needed to make changes to the
state constitution, such as shifting more governmental sovereignty to the E.U.
(federal) level. At the time, the E.U. was at a precarious place in not having
enough sovereignty to safeguard the euro.
Interestingly,
during the evening of June 17th as the election results came in,
Hollande stayed out of the media spotlight. It was the prime minister,
Jean-Marc Ayraunt who spoke for the Socialist Party. He spoke along with the
leaders of the other parties and several candidates (both winners and losers). Hollande’s
absence was notable because it suggests that it might not be wise for a
figurehead to be perceived as being too partisan; unlike party leaders in a
legislative body, a governor or president represents the republic as a whole,
and thus the public (rather than partisan) good. Hollande was smart to spend
the evening preparing for (or travelling to) the G-20 meeting en Mexique le lendemain.
Standing apart from the temptation to publically
celebrate the victory of his party, he put himself in the future position of
being able to credibly claim that agreeing to shift more sovereignty to the
federal level is en l’intéressé de la France. In
other words,
resisting the
temptation to engage in partisan displays can translate into political capital
that a figurehead can use to facilitate a shift in the constitutional design of
governance. Moves on this scale are fitting for a figurehead who is oriented to
the big-picture rather than to trying to win on every issue.
Source:
Steven Erlanger,
“Socialists’ Victory in France Buttresses Hollande’s Power,” The New York Times, June 17, 2012.