| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| French poll: Foreign policy consensus |
| 2007-03-09 |
| France's presidential election campaign is heating up, with nearly a dozen candidates now vigorously defending starkly contrasting views on everything from social and economic policy to the best methods for protecting the environment or integrating the country's immigrant-based underclass. While voters are sure to have a dizzying array of choices in these areas, the debate on foreign policy and national defense issues has remained fairly consensual, with most candidates sticking to conventional policies followed by President Jacques Chirac over the past 12 years. Recent defense policy addresses over the past week from the two front-runners - Socialist Party (PS) candidate Ségolène Royal and Nicolas Sarkozy, representing Chirac's center-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) - confirm the general trend toward a convergence of views, which also are shared by most of the minor candidates also expected to appear on the ballot in the first round of voting on 22 April. The recent speeches nonetheless also offer glimpses of how France's place in the world may change depending on who voters elect next May. Both Sarkozy and Royal say defense spending must remain stable - near today's 2 percent of GDP - if France is to remain a regional power capable of projecting force worldwide. They agree on the need to maintain France's independent nuclear deterrent, the famed "force de frappe," although neither was able to tell journalists how many nuclear-equipped submarines France operates (correct answer: four, with an additional unit under construction). Each candidate has also paid lip service to the need for a united, independent, pan-European defense policy across the 27-member EU. Both have promised a wide-ranging review of national defense doctrines dating to the mid-1990s to achieve this goal. Finally, while both candidates hail Chirac's decision to keep France out of the Iraq war, each has called for greater legislative oversight in defense and foreign policy matters. The position marks a shift away from a long-standing French tradition dating to former president Charles de Gaulle, under which control over the armed forces was a "reserved zone" for presidential power. Long article- rest at link. |
| Posted by:Free Radical |
| #1 "the famed force de frappe" I love frappes. Black and whites are my favorites. What's that have to do with nuclear deterrence? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-03-09 12:15 |