The Transition Artist

It was only upon making a demand for a visa before my study abroad year in France three years ago that I was told I could actually become a French citizen. Though I didn’t yet have a strong mastery of the language, my dad’s birth in his mother’s home country earned me the right to citizenship. In years since, I decided two things. The first is that I love this buttery, blossoming, mostly cold place so much I don’t want to leave. The second, that no amount of paperwork will ever make up for the lack of shared cultural context between French citizens who have grown up here and myself. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I will always be an American living in a French world, but as a now dual citizen it is my responsibility “undergo my second childhood,” as I like to call it, and learn how to be a French adult.

This process requires a lot of question asking and looking stupid (and not letting that bother me since, after all I’m only three years old in French citizen time), but has led to my slowly but surely learning about social security, healthcare, employment, banking, taxes, and voting. Thanks to a well-timed question about voter registration, I enrolled myself on the last possible day (December 31st) and, yesterday, added “voted in France” to my list of steps to French adulthood. However, before I voted, I had to gather a basic amount of information. 

In no way do I want to promote myself as a political analyst or expert on French politics, but, for Americans who just heard about the election oh, this week, or are a little confused on socialism, 11 candidates in the first round of elections, and what “FN” or “centrist” means in a French context: I’m here to share my experience. (Note: this is a superficial overview and based on my own understanding; I invite you to learn more on your own from more reputable sources.) 

So let’s just dive right in. Since last year, there have been so many names swirling around that I could hardly keep track of them all. It was like when the Republicans and Democrats got ready for the primaries except on crack because there are also so many independent parties here that make so much noise that I couldn’t get straight who was coming from where. To be clear, France typically has a fairly clear two party system (keep this in mind because that’ll be important when we get to the two candidates that are moving on): Socialists and Republicans, left and right, easy right? But not quite the same as democrats and republicans. The word socialist might ring a bell because you heard it in reference to Bernie Sanders. It basically means the government does more to take care of its people (think higher taxes in order to fund public healthcare and widespread access to higher education). It sounded great when Sanders said it, but he wasn’t the first to think of it. France has pretty much been socialist, with socialist presidents, since Mitterrand won back in the 80s, but people are ready for something a little different. How do we know? François Hollande, the current socialist president, has some of the lowest approval ratings and is known as the president who didn’t achieve much during his time in office. Now, in a time of security concerns post-terror attacks and a refugee crisis that is still well under way, it’s safe to say the French have high expectations for their new leader. 

On par with the trend in American elections, candidates campaigned for newer, better, faster, stronger. Many went the “anti-establishment route,” including a number of Frexit candidates, an anti-capitalism candidate, and a couple more extreme leftists. Basically, nobody came into the game saying, “I’d say things are going pretty well, we’d like to continue.” So, of the 11 candidates you may have vaguely heard about, the three that almost made it, but not quite were: 

• François Fillon, Republican 
• Jean Luc Mélanchon, Extreme Left
• Benoit Hamon, Socialist (only got about 6% of the vote, so he missed by a lot more than the other two)

Yesterday, we voted to narrow that list down to two, so that the choice for the new president can be officially voted in on May 7th. We’re left with two choices: Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron. Le Pen is the nationalist, anti-immigration candidate (hence the word national in her party name) that reminds you a little too much of Trump, minus the sexism and the business background (to note: her dad started her political party, and 15 years ago he ran for president and had everyone gulping and giving some major side eye, but somehow today her pull feels less shocking). What you’ve probably heard about her: she’s drinking the populist koolaid, thinks European countries should play in their own corners, has pretty publicly made friends with Russia, and wants to “protect French culture” (read: “purify,” remind you of anyone?). Macron, meanwhile, has the look and style of Justin Trudeau, young and down with rights, with a message of hope for France à la Obama 2008. He started his own party called “En Marche” that is centrist, aka right smack in the middle of left and right, and is considered the progressive democrat. He’s realistic about globalism and knows what the words climate change mean.

Why is this narrowing down significant? Because both of these candidates came from non-majority parties and largely represent the French being fed up with the current system (sound familiar?). Meanwhile, the supporters of the far left socialist candidate, Hamon, started pointing fingers immediately following the first poll results saying the media was to blame. While they aren’t necessarily wrong, the media’s role in the presidential campaigns played a huge role, to the point that many independent candidates got little to no coverage except during the debates, there’s still something to be said about the fact that the socialist candidate only got 6% of the vote. 

As of now, it still feels early to definitively say that Macron will be the next president. Given that the recent terror attacks have sparked a general sense of fear and the refugee crisis has spurred on the “us and them” epidemic, there is a general sense of nervousness that an extreme right wing candidate is not out of the question, though almost every candidate (including the right wing republican candidate) urged against extremism and strongly encouraged a vote for Macron. What should you take away from all this? America isn’t the only one who thinks it needs some upgrades, and frustration with global crises is in the water internationally. The question is, will France respond with courage or fear?