Ah, a campanha presidencial francesa: quel ennui...

Semana passada a Economist publicou uma matéria de capa sobre as eleições presidenciais francesas. Os franceses não gostaram, pois a Economist sempre dá um jeito de ironizar esses incorrigíveis gauleses, sobranceiros e irreformáveis...
Pois o debate esquentou, sendo que a Economist foi acusada de ser o Pravda das finanças e um talibã do liberalismo.
Mon Dieu!
Esses jornalistas franceses perderam o senso do ridículo.
Abaixo, reflexos do, hum..., "debate", com links para os artigos pertinentes.
 Paulo Roberto de Almeida 


The French media

Denouncing Pravda and the Taliban liberals

Apr 6th 2012, 13:19 by S.P. | PARIS

APOLOGIES to those readers for whom the following is one self-referential detail too far, but in light of a previous posting I thought that the editorial by Laurent Joffrin in this week’s Le Nouvel Observateur might be of interest. It is quite telling about the current political debate in France. Mr Joffrin is a respected senior French journalist, who currently edits the weekly news-magazine and was previously editor of Libération, a left-wing daily.


His editorial is entitled “The Economist, Pravda of finance”. For those who don’t read French, here is a rough translation of his argument:

These French really are useless. A nation that claims to be the most political on earth has bred a pitiful class of politicians, each of whose programme is as dreadful as the other...Thus The Economist, well-known worldwide, puts it in an article explicitly entitled “France in denial”...An article immediately picked up in France with the successful theme: “We French, we really are useless”. An article immediately discussed by leaders with the theme: “They really are useless (take your pick: politicians, voters, journalists etc”.

To understand the attack, says Mr Joffrin, the French need to understand The Economist better. He offers a summary:

The Economist, contrary to what many French people think, has nothing impartial about it. Founded in the 19th century to support by any means free trade and the market economy, it defends the most liberal theses with an exemplary rigidity. Whichever the year, season, or century, The Economist, a journalistic parrot, will argue that taxes should be cut, rules lightened, the role of the state reduced, and baleful ideas about equality or justice rolled back...It is presented as the bible of economists. It’s the “Pravda” of finance.

Mr Joffrin continues:

As to its competence, moreover, a little visit to its internet site is enlightening. At the start of 2008, when publishing its annual forecasts, The Economist foresaw nothing of the financial crisis that would break out six months later and predicted an exceptional year for stockmarkets...The diagnostic that The Economist makes of France is true to form: as always, public spending must be cut, labour-market protection abolished, taxes on the rich lowered, and the state rolled back...The Economist forgets two things: the two main candidates envisage a progressive reduction of deficits over four or five years, one through fiscal reform, the other through limiting spending. To go any faster, The Economist forgets, would be to risk recession, which would make everything impossible, and an evolution à la grecque.

His closing remarks include the line “One should not submit foolishly to a little Taliban of liberalism”.


Anybody still reading at this point (sorry that this is turning out to be so long) might like to know that the French website of The Huffington Post has run a counterpiece by Fathi Derder, a Swiss member of parliament. Best to let Mr Derder speak for himself:

I like the French media and politics. But sometimes I am disheartened by “left bank” politico-media autism. The record was achieved on Thursday by Laurent Joffrin, in Le Nouvel Obs. He took violently against The Economist. What had this honourable British paper done? Nothing special: under the title “France in Denial”, it simply laid out, once again, the weaknesses of the French system. A reminder of well-known facts. So well-known that I was almost disappointed by a newspaper that is usually very original...This reminder of the self-evident nonetheless seems to anger Joffrin. Whose main argument consists of saying: “it’s not true”. The proof, according to Joffrin?The Economist did not foresee the 2008 crisis. And the point is? A childish argument, and a nice own goal which shows that The Economist was right: France and denial, it’s one and the same.”

Mr Derder continues with a long and generous defence of The Economist, which I will spare readers who have made it this far. But the final word goes to Gaspard Koenig, who is currently running for election in London as a Liberal candidate for a French overseas constituency at June’s legislative election, and was formerly speechwriter for Christine Lagarde. He has just posted a thoughtful piece, also onThe Huffington Post French site, about the rejection of liberalism in France.


Noting the absence of liberal arguments in the French debate, he says that “Since the crushing failure of Alain Madelin at the 2002 presidential elections, [liberals in France] scarcely dare show their face.” Today, in his view, most presidential candidates, who insist that they do support deficit reduction, are actually saying:

Let’s move forward more slowly towards the precipice, but whatever we do let’s not change direction...How is it possible to disagree with The Economist, whose title last week was “France in Denial”.

Mr Koenig goes on to make a case so seldom heard in political debate in France, which is the need "to promote entrepreneurs by all means (including fiscal policy), to open regulated professions (such as taxis) to competition, and to simplify a rigid and Kafkaesque labour code (which has grown from 2,300 pages in 2000 to 3,000 today!)."

He ends with a nice quote from Georges Pompidou: “Stop annoying the French! Let them live a little and you will see that everything will be better!”

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