François Hollande - the First Compromise!

Negotiation is the art of compromise!

Yesterday, the soap opera concerning the negotiations between the Socialists and the Greens (Ecologists EELV) finally came to an end.  In exchange for a policy agreement to reduce the proportion of electricity generated from nuclear power to 50% from 75%, by closing 24 out of 58 nuclear power plants between 2012 and 2025, François Hollande has offered them up to 60 seats unopposed by the Socialists.  It is expected that at least 30 will be elected. 

At first the negotiations centred on the fate of a partly built reactor at Flamanville, which the Greens wanted to abandon completely, and a temporary freeze on construction was agreed.  The agreement was then announced and immediately the Greens pointed out that a clause concerning the closing of a MOX reprocessing plant at Marcoule had been left out.  Yesterday it was agreed that its activities would be reduced by 50% but it would still continue in operation.  Exactly what that means is not clear but Eva Joly has gone into retreat for the weekend!

A gift for the UMP

This episode has handed a gift to the UMP which has lost no time, for once, in mobilising their senior spokesmen to pour scorn on the whole thing. 
Eric Besson, the Energy Minister has stated on France Inter that going down that route will increase the cost of electricity in France to the level of its neighbours, who pay 40% more, which will lead to reduced competitivity for French industry, and is a recipe for exporting jobs. 
Jean-François Coppé (UMP Party Secretary) has decried the agreement as being carried out for purely political gain and not for the benefit of the country. 
Nicholas Sarkozy has said that the nuclear power industry in France has been built up over 50 years, by a series of left and right wing Presidents, to ensure that France, which has no oil or gas, can have a degree of energy independence and he wasn't going to put that at risk. 

Finally the unions are saying that more than 8,000 jobs will be lost directly, together with many more in subcontracting companies who serve the industry.

François Hollande’s record
François Hollande has no experience of government but according to his own statements he is proud of his ability to unite the often fractious elements of the French left, but there is a big difference between political horse-trading and taking decisions which could have consequences at the national level.

I will be generous and put to one side his leadership of the Socialist Party between 1997 and 2008, when as First Secretary he presided over three lost presidential elections and sent Segolene Royale into battle in October 2007 without proper support.   She had been his partner since the late 1970’s until they separated in June 2007.  They had four children together but never married.

I also won’t dwell on the fact that, since he resigned in 2008, Martine Aubry, his replacement as First Secretary has, over four years, successfully implemented the radical concept of having an agreed set of socialist policies well before the next election.  She has also introduced the idea of holding primary elections to select the Socialist’s Presidential candidate, which have been widely supported by the public.

But he won and she lost!  I think that she was perceived as being too much on the left, too uncompromising and too likely to deliver on her election promises. 

M. Hollande continues to lead Sarkozy in the polls, but his lead is slowly being eroded.  So, if the opinion polls are to be believed, it appears that, at present, the French prefer a presidential candidate who is not likely to impose his own views or successfully reform too much, too fast.  Someone who can accommodate many strands of opinion and is open to wide ranging political compromise!