Comments on: Going pear-shaped already? http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/blog/franceprofonde/going-pear-shaped-already/ Tim King on French politics Mon, 13 Oct 2008 22:36:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.5 by: Edouard Reillet http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/blog/franceprofonde/going-pear-shaped-already/#comment-16006 Thu, 05 Jul 2007 11:41:59 +0000 http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/blog/franceprofonde/going-pear-shaped-already/#comment-16006 How so very true. And how so very predictable. Just why the French fell for it I cannot understand. Can't say it would have been better with Segolene, but at least we would have known right from the start. Sarkozy promised so much, and proposed so many stupid things, that's this all thing already has a foregone conclusion: it will end in farce, if not tragedy, and France will have been screwed once more by its top politician (not for the first time, mind you, so there is hope we might yet learn something of the mess it's going to be in 3 or 4 years - even maybe less than that). I've always felt that politicians should lead by example, and here we have it: we have a full fledged demonstration that having a very powerful President, with little accountability, is recipe for disaster - but it was very similar with Mitterand and Chirac, albeit slightly more balanced out by cohabitation. When will switch back to being a proper parlementarian democracy, with a strong PM - inevitable in this day and age - and a Parliement intent on controlling what the executive does? It is all in Montesquieu and the others : checks and balances... How so very true. And how so very predictable. Just why the French fell for it I cannot understand. Can’t say it would have been better with Segolene, but at least we would have known right from the start. Sarkozy promised so much, and proposed so many stupid things, that’s this all thing already has a foregone conclusion: it will end in farce, if not tragedy, and France will have been screwed once more by its top politician (not for the first time, mind you, so there is hope we might yet learn something of the mess it’s going to be in 3 or 4 years - even maybe less than that).

I’ve always felt that politicians should lead by example, and here we have it: we have a full fledged demonstration that having a very powerful President, with little accountability, is recipe for disaster - but it was very similar with Mitterand and Chirac, albeit slightly more balanced out by cohabitation. When will switch back to being a proper parlementarian democracy, with a strong PM - inevitable in this day and age - and a Parliement intent on controlling what the executive does? It is all in Montesquieu and the others : checks and balances…

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