What the new socialist program would do for France?
As the socialist party in France re-elects their current leader Francois Hollande for the fourth consecutive time it is fair to ponder what it means for the Socialists in France and the French society in general.
Well, currently the effects cannot be seen but if the Socialists can claw back the Presidency in 2007 the French society and Europe in general might be in for a turret time. Let us re-capture what happened at the Parti congress in Le Mans. To give a brief round-up it is apparent that the PS (Parti Socialiste) took a major to the left with the agreed common program - the first since 1990. Particularly Laurent Fabius emerges from the Le Mans meeting as a strong presence. He is the dissident who lead a fraction of socialist no-voters against the official party line during the referendum of the now dead and buried EU-constitution.
"The (socialist) programme would renationalise Electricité de France, the power utility, partly floated this week; raise the minimum wage; abolish flexible two-year job contracts; and boost overtime pay for working more than 35 hours. On the EU, the party has fudged matters, calling for a federal Europe that is both “more political and more social”."
See article from the Economist - walled for non-subscribers.
Now, I ask whether the points and actions above would have a positive effect on the French society.
My answer is NO, and the decided program surely shows that the socialists in France are out of pace with the reality they live in. The ideas as they were presented at the Le Mans congress are a mirror of anti-globalisation and -capitalism and those kinds of views will do France no good.
The article from the Economist reports how the socialists' program reflect the general anti-capitalist mood. Perhaps this is indeed true but surely not all French politicians can abide to the program as it is presented above.
As I have reported on several occasions in this blog, France will only emerge as the economic pressence it should rightly be if the politicians realize that the strategy of closing its borders, keeping rigid leviathans businesses on state hands and caving in to unions' demands are left as a strategy of yesterday.
Perhaps dirigism should be revived with a zeal of globalization and capitalism ?