The French presidential elections are upon us, and in a tight three-way race, things are beginning to get caustic.
So we have two contrasting appeals to national identity—a fascinating quarrel. Ségolène Royal, a Socialist from a military family, who has made a career advocating for the environment and small-scale local farmers, suggested the French people fly the French flag.
Not a particularly risky thing to say, even among elites who consider themselves above flag-waving. Still, she elicited a stinging rebuke from the third of the three main candidates.
François Bayrou, a practicing Catholic of the more socially conservative UDF party, who’s got the most to lose at this stage in the election, saw low-hanging fruit in Royal’s banal appeal.
“I love France, and I am well at home in my country, but this obsession [with flags]—and a president who makes declarations of good and evil—such things don’t belong in my country. Such things are American.” (rough translation and emphasis mine.)[1]
In other words, waving the French flag is unbefitting a Frenchman.
For what it’s worth,
Bayrou's campaign website features video from Youtube, which belongs to that national enemy of France, Google.
[1] "J'aime beaucoup la France, je suis bien dans mon pays, mais cette obsession qui fait qu'il va falloir avoir des drapeaux et les mettre à la fenêtre tel jour, et que la présidente de la République va vous dire ce qui est bien et ce qui est mal, ça ne ressemble pas à mon pays, a déclaré devant la presse le candidat UDF à la présidentielle. Tout ça, c'est la société américaine."
