Lost causes and beaux gestes

France is spending its Easter weekend saluting what it sees as courageous acts in support of noble causes which might be better defined as lost. First there are the rave reviews for the great student revolt of spring 2006. Then there is the coronation of a new hero -- a Pyrenean member of parliament who staged a hunger strike which forced President Chirac and the Government to subsidise a Japanese factory in his constituency. Now France is admiring the suicidal action of the staff of France Soir, a once great newspaper which is on the verge of vanishing.

As students at a couple of universities "fight on" despite the Government's surrender over its hated labour reform, the commentating classes are hailing the two-month rebellion as a coming of age. A younger generation that had been thought apolitical has risen up against injustice in the spirit of France's history of revolt in the name of lofty ideals, say politicians and columnists of both left and right. Max Gallo, an historian and novelist who once served as President Mitterrand's spokesman, voiced the standard view today. the protests against reform were an initiation rite in keeping with French history. "A generation has taken back a tradition," he said in le Parisien. "They are not afraid of change; they are refusing retreat". This has become the standard dreamy view of a protest movement aimed at blocking reform and denying France a chance to adapt to the 21st century.

Such romantic emotion has coloured the absurd tale of Jean Lassalle, a centrist parliamentarian from the UDF party, who starved himself for two months, losing 20 kilos, in pursuit of a cause that seemed dubious at best. Lassalle, 52, a former shepherd, wanted to prevent Japan's Toyal Aluminium from moving 147 jobs from a paint factory in Accous, a town in his constituency in the mountainous Aspe valley. Never mind that Toyal denied that it had any plans to shift the jobs to its other site, only a few miles away. Lassalle became a national hero in the cause of resistance to globalisation, making guest appearances on television as he became ever more gaunt. In time for Easter, President Chirac intervened and, with the help of Nicolas Sarkozy, they forged a deal under which the Japanese will expand their operation in  Lassalle's valley, with the sweetener of millions of euros of taxpayer's money of course. While some politicians have muttered about populism and blackmail, Lassalle is basking in admiration. Francois Bayrou, leader of the UDF, addressed him in Le Journal du Dimanche today. "You have done this crazy and great thing...It is something very old, which has almost vanished and which is called heroism and sacrifice." The Japanese ambassador to Paris was less complimentary about the man whom the Tokyo media have dubbed "the Saumurai of the Pyrenees". Japanese and other foreign investors would be put off by a country which in which firms have to "negotiate with a knife at their throat," he said.

Which brings us to the sad antics of the staff of France Soir. The newspaper, founded by the much-admired Pierre Lazareff, was a model of good popular journalism when it dominated the kiosks in the post-war years. For the past decade the title has faded to a shadow of its once glorious self as a succession of owners has failed to find a formula for survival in a sickly market. Last autumn the heavily indebted newspaper was placed under a bankruptcy court while a possible saviour was sought. The staff has now effectively closed the paper by refusing to work for the new owner. The court approved an offer from Jean-Pierre Brunois, a property developer who wants to relaunch France Soir as a British-style popular tabloid. His plan includes the redundancy of about half of its 100 journalistic staff. Yesterday, the staff turned their backs on Brunois and jeered when he visited to explain his plan. Once grand titles in Britain and many other countries have fallen on similar hard times but survived in other guises. I sympathise deeply with my colleagues at France Soir, but it is difficult to understand how killing their newspaper can be a better alternative to surviving, albeit in much reduced circumstances. But, predictably, their "combat" is being egged on by media coverage that depicts them, once again, as victims of the evil liberal market. What fate could be worse than having to copy Britain's Sun or Daily Mirror, sniffed a radio commentator. France reads far fewer national newspapers than most other industrialised nations, but saving France Soir has become a noble cause. As usual, the media and politicians are calling for the standard Gallic remedy: money from the state to refloat the newspaper. The French press already receives state handouts to help it survive, but there has been no sign of a France Soir bale-out.

Failing state intervention, they want the court to sell the newspaper to Arkady Gaidamak, a Russian tycoon who has made an offer but is wanted on an international warrant for alleged arms dealing. 

Comments

[Frank Schnittger]

There goes the crowd. I am its leader. Therefore I must follow.

[jimmmy]

I've read that all french newspapers are subsidized by the state one way or another- through assisting with printing costs or distribution. is this true?

[Robert Marchenoir]

The most incredible thing with the France-Soir story is that its journalists and unions demand that the newspaper be sold to a Russian tycoon who cannot set foot in France, because he would be arrested immediately.

His bid has been rejected by the bankruptcy court, presumably because he is wanted by French justice for illegal arms dealing with Angola -- not to mention the 73 million euros the fiscal authorities says he owns them (sorry, I'm quoting this from memory, you'd have to check the amount).

It certainly did not help that Israël has issued an international arrest warrant for him, for money laundering.

But -- he promised there would be no layoffs.

Supposing such a promise should be taken to face value (which is a great leap of faith), how refreshing to see the sudden broad-mindedness of journalists' unions, which regularly vilify French media groups as being owned by arms dealers...

[Sophie Masson]

Dear Mr Bremner
I am writing to congratulate you on an excellent blog, and very thought-provoking posts(and some interesting comments too from readers though some also boringly predictable ones). I certainly don't think any of this is French-bashing. You are telling the truth. Many French people don't want to read it.
I'm very concerned about France's direction as I'm proudly of French origin, living in Australia since I was a kid, but as my parents never emigrated formally--they were expatriate workers for a big French construction company--we used to go back to France every two years for a holiday so kept up with what France was like. (I'm a dual citizen). We go back now frequently too--my parents and my four sisters are all living in France, one of my brothers in Sydney, another in Dubai.. My husband's English too, with all his family in UK so we go back frequently..
all this to say that over the last 20 years or so I've watched France declining when it used to be dynamic, prosperous, full of confidence--it's terribly sad. Britain was pretty 'depressive' too in the period immediately before Thatcher and in early part of her reign but it gritted its teeth and took the hard decisions and now has been rewarded..I used to think that French cities, shops etc were so much much better than Britain's, everything looked better, things zingier, more dynamic, and now the boot is getting to be on the other foot. My nieces and nephews are also finding things much much harder than my husband's relatives in Britain or indeed our children here in Australia..
I think one of the big problems is that the Govt of France has never trusted its people(for good reason as the history of France attests, but the opposite is equally true). They simply will not take the people into its confidence and honestly and plainly tell the truth about the dangerous situation France is in..they do not have the guts for anything, they believe in nothing except their own status--and they are completement a court d'idees...
It's a sad, sad decline. I can't see how they're going to pull out of it. No-one is on the horizon with any good ideas or leadership qualities..and meantime my nieces and nephews are all looking at emigrating to Australia! As is one of my sisters whose small business is so tormented by bureaucratic strangulation, rates and taxes she can't cope any more..
I adore France and I feel so sad for it..and yet so relieved we're here.
all the very best
Sophie Masson
Author site: www.northnet.com.au/~smasson

[ND]

Hello Sophie, You don't live in France so it can enable you to see state of France with this necessary distance to judge "clearly" but this distance makes you powerless to participate really to what's really going on in this land. So, don't buy too quickly worried analysis and enjoy your stay abroad. At last, French people recognize there is a crisis in France and it took time to do so because it takes place in a prosperous and well-equiped land. You're absolutely right about complicated relations between people and gouvernment and i think it's the central problem. Btw, fact that it took a generation for Britain to join the level of France doesn't say that France is in big trouble but it says that Britain was in a very bad shape.

[Victor Tan]

To acknowledge that the French have finally accepted that they are in trouble, and then comparing Britain's problems in the 1970's to France, and contradicting himself to deny that France is in big trouble, tells me that ND(why remain anonymous?) may be incarcerated in St Helena.

If ever he has the opportunity to speak to any Briton, he will be proud to say that the country was in deep economic trouble in the 1970's and he is proud that after one generation of hard adjustments, he is now enjoying much greater prosperity and confidence.

Why are the French so entrenched in a system that has failed them? I do not see salvation until the entire system collapses like the Soviet Union.

Well, i do prefer staying anonymous as internet doesn't guarantee anyway true identities (one can claim what one wants). To sum up, i'm not in an ego-trip mood, just a humble French reader discovering the anglo press (since 2003, a bad year to discover it) and who sees no contradiction in what he said previously nor St Helena's coasts.

[Gareth]

Again, I fail to understand the striking. 110 employees, only 50,000 readers, it's technically bankrupt, and they refuse to change? I'm lost...
good blog, by the way Mr Bremner. Can't agree more about the Lasalle story, it's unforgiveable for an MP to act this way, and unforgiveable for the press to glorify this kind of behaviour.
Gareth
http://www.paris-link.com/blogs

[Etienne Lorenceau]

What about a society that prefers the stability of unemployment to the
precariousness of work? What about a society which believes that it has
overcome the "loi de la jungle" by creating a unique "jungle de la loi"?

What does it has to do with any French Prime Minister? In France when
state figures are right (even on the left like Claude Allegre), the
French can get politically blinded by partisanship. It only needs to
play with our fears and then we blame the method or the communication:
there isn't anything else to blame. The hidden risk for any democracy is
to become a media driven electoral system serving individual. Sell
unrealistic dreams to the mass for getting elected is not doing any good
to political life. This electoral slant is aggravated in socialist
countries like France because everything is state controlled or state
driven (Keynesian economical model, centralized administration...)

As a twisted result of desirable democracy we tend to believe that the
"social proof" is validating everything ("x million people cannot be
wrong"): because so many students went into the streets, their claim
should be right. The message slowly drifted from their fear for
precariousness to a void "we shall remain motivated" (the purpose of the
movement being lost). An increasing number of people in the streets does
not make them right. Bad news: 60 million Nazis didn't make Hitler
right. Other bad news: life itself is precarious, health is precarious,
economies are precarious, societies are precarious, your car is
precarious, your couple is precarious, your other family ties are
precarious (children do leave and brother and sister do get occasionally
into conflicting situations).

Burying our head in the sand (no matter how numerous we may get) will
not send precariousness away, it's just an attempt to deport the
responsibility for our problems on to others. The proper move is not
inwards but outwards: let's generate hopes, new ideas, achievable
goals... Freud wrote a lot about this process. Narcissism is one of the
risks of Mediterranean cultures.

There is much more to say but...

All the best

Etienne Lorenceau

PS it is true that the Anglo Saxons hate the French and it is a
misconception that the French hate the Anglo Saxons.

[Swift]

Etienne, when you write 'Anglo Saxon' in modern day English it just makes no sense and instead recalls the school history syllabus. Besides, we've already had this England v France debate and so your caveat at the end of your post is rather unnecessary (not to mention a trifle erroneous). Apart from that small point, you have written a sterling post mon vieux.

[Valentin]

Anglo-Saxon is such a funny way French use to describe once-protestant countries - pragmatic, down-to-earth, even humble, people abiding by the laws.

Now that, is the mild version. In a heated debate about globalisation (for instance) we have the extreme version : pragmatic turns into individualist and materialist, with the ruthless capitalist as aggravated form; down to earth (as in "what can we do to pay the huge public debt") becomes lack of ideals and vision; as to the laws, well, we'll be knocked over with the Flame of Revolution - such venerated notion, even when there's no precise enemy to aim it at.

Etienne's post is very exact, amongst the main reasons for the present situation is the populist temptation of most politicians, driving them to play on people's fears and doubts.