Europe at a crossroads

The European conference of bishops met recently and looked at both the challenges and signs of hope on that continent. They said Europe is showing signs of both weariness and revival. Their brief communique put emphasis on the unity of the universal Church, the primacy of God and the dignity of man. All three have been sources of weariness for both John Paul and Benedict, but both have worked with great hope that Europe will recall its Christian roots and a revival of faith and moral values can be restored.

Europe is at a crossroads alright. I’ve been watching the French elections lately and listening with interest to what Nicholas Sarkozy has been saying, like this report from the campaign trail.

Sarkozy keeps talking for another 10 or 12 minutes, outlining his campaign’s main objectives, but it is the initial impression, the first sentences he utters, the directness with which he points out contradictions and the clarity with which he rebuffs expectations that ultimately prompt the vintners to give him a round of enthusiastic applause. Finally they have someone standing in front of them who takes them seriously and treats them like adults, not someone who acts as though they were children who needed protection.

He was antithetical, and he won.

Mr Sarkozy kept to his first-round message: essentially, that France has to change, that work needs to be valued, effort rewarded, and authority strengthened.

Look at that message. Inspire the people to work hard and raise the bar on work standards. Respect authority, beginning early. He wants schoolchildren to stand up when the teacher enters the classroom. This is both new…and a return to fundamental valoues. Which is new for France right now. 

Mr Sarkozy’s victory was built on a message of change—rupture is his favourite word—that many analysts considered far too risqué for the supposedly conservative French. This election has shown that, given leadership and a charismatic candidate, they too are ready to adapt their country.

As he told them in his victory speech, respect yourselves and each other, work together for unity.

The French people have spoken and have chosen to make a break with the ideas, the customs and the behaviour of the past. I am thus going to restore the status of work, authority, standards, respect, merit. I am going to give the place of honour back to the nation and national identity. I am going to give back to the French people pride in France…

The French people have opted for change. I shall be implementing this change because this is the mandate I have received from the people and because France needs it – but I shall do this with all of the French people. I shall do it in a spirit of unity and in a spirit of fraternity. I shall do it in such a way that no one is left with the feeling of being excluded, of being left to one side.

I call on all the French, irrespective of their party, their beliefs, their origins, to join with me to ensure that France gets moving again.

He does seem to speak for, or at least to, all the people. One of those reports above observed that even the opposing Socialist party was confounded by his ability to reach across the spectrum effectively.

France’s socialists issued angry press releases without knowing exactly what they were objecting to. How could they possibly complain about a man who had just praised their traditions, a man who had counted the labor movement as one the great moments in French history? 

This election has implications beyond France, and the whole world has been watching.

In one fell swoop Sarkozy has given the French Right what it has lacked for more than six decades: a stamp of legitimacy as a political force able and willing to energise the economy, overhaul an elitist and moribund bureaucracy, confront head-on the obdurate trade unions, check crime, pacify the riot-prone Arab and black neighbourhoods, streamline immigration from the African continent and revitalise the European Union.

What is more, the new president has convinced the French that he proposes to bring about this rupture with the past without sounding the least bit apologetic and without eroding France’s pride in its distinctive historic and cultural identity.

This is a staggering turn of events.