French Nationalism vs. EU Leviathan
"I was really shocked when I read the Financial
Times this morning that one of the candidates was
pleading for more national champions and more
protectionist action," huffed Neelie Kroes,
competition commissioner of the European Union.
"It is outdated to talk about national champions.
It is outdated to talk about protectionism." [Brussels
shocked by Sarkozy rhetoric , Financial
Times,March 30, 2007]
Well, these ideas may be outdated at the EU
Commission that sits in Brussels. But they are making a
comeback in France, where Nicolas Sarkozy, the
leading candidate for the French presidency, has
emerged as an unabashed economic patriot.
Kroes was reacting to a FT report on a speech in
Lille where Sarkozy ripped into the takeover of Arcelor,
Europe`s largest steelmaker, by Lakshmi Mittal, the
Indian steel magnate. A "mistake," declared
Sarkozy:
"Look at the waste of Arcelor, which we sold off
on the cheap because we believed the steel industry was
history. They got it wrong. They lied." Calling free
trade a policy of naïveté, Sarkozy promised an
"industrial policy." He has in mind retaining
industry and restoring manufacturing jobs to a France
that has been losing both. [Sarkozy
aims to block foreign takeovers, By Martin Arnold,
Financial Times, March 29, 2007]
France`s economic destiny cannot be left to the
market, he told young entrepreneurs in Paris. Gen. de
Gaulle himself, said Sarkozy, decided France must go
nuclear for self-sufficiency. Today, 59 French nuclear
plants today produce 78 percent of France`s electricity,
and France is the largest exporter of nuclear
electricity in the European Union.
Was de Gaulle`s decision a mistake? Would that the
United States had gone forward, despite Three Mile
Island, and done likewise.
Sarkozy sounds like a Hamiltonian. He believes in
markets. He understands markets. But the country comes
first. Decisions that affect the sovereignty and
economic independence of the nation are not to be left
to the invisible hand of a market that promises only the
most efficient result, now, and not necessarily what is
best for the nation.
Kroes, a Eurocrat, insists she is not trying to
interfere in France`s election. Yet her spokesman warns
that should President Sarkozy pursue the proposals of
Candidate Sarkozy, France will be confronted by the EU:
"You cannot prevent
anyone saying they want a protectionist policy, but you
can tackle it, if they take concrete measures," the
spokesman said. Kroes "does not accept any kind of
artificial obstacles to cross-border investment and
takeovers, and we have demonstrated on numerous
occasions that we will intervene."
Consider not only what was said here—that the EU will
confront a French president who acts in France`s
economic interests—but the tone.
Do we Americans, too, wish to live in a world where
unelected transnational bureaucrats speak
imperiously to U.S. presidents on what we may and may
not do to restore the old
self-sufficiency and independence of the United
States? Because that is where we are headed—with
NAFTA, the World Trade Organization and the North
American Union agreed to by
Bush, Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul
Martin in 2005, under the rubric of "The Security
and Prosperity Partnership of North America."
As we see clearly now, from the evolution of the
European Coal and Steel Community of half a century
ago to the EU of today, free trade is the Trojan horse
of global government. A cornucopia of consumer goods is
the Faustian bribe that is offered to nations for the
surrender of their souls, and to peoples for the
surrender of their sovereignty.
The Treaties of Rome, 50 years ago, birthed the
European Economic Community, or Common Market, a
free-trade zone of Germany, France, Italy and the
Benelux Union. This evolved into the European Community.
In 1992, with the
Maastricht Treaty, the European Union was born of
the EC. Eurocrats now seek ruling power over the 27 EU
nations with a combined GDP equal to that of the United
States through ratification of a new European
constitution they have drawn up.
French and Dutch patriots, however, voted that
constitution down.
Sarkozy, in these last weeks before the first round
of voting in the presidential election, is also taking a
tough line against the Third World
rioters at the Gare du Nord, the train station to
the
suburban banlieus where the
African and Arab immigrants and
illegal aliens live in
tightly packed communities.
Financial Times columnist Chris Caldwell sees Sarkozy
taking a page from the Nixon playbook of the 1960s,
when, in a
time of
urban riots and
campus uprisings, Nixon appealed to Middle America
and the
Great Silent Majority to stand by him.
The struggle that succeeds the
Cold War may not be vertical at all—i.e., between
nation-states—but horizontal, between patriots of all
nations and transnational elites, like Kroes and her
fellow commissioners.
Free trade and globalization are beginning to look
like yesterday`s stocks. Patriotism and protectionism
are making a comeback.
Keep an eye on Monsieur Sarkozy. His election could
bring a "France First!" presidency that would
inspire imitators everywhere and further imperil the
great project of our transnational elite.
COPYRIGHT
CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
Patrick J. Buchanan needs
no introduction to VDARE.COM
readers; his book
State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and
Conquest of America,
can be ordered from
Amazon.com.


