Roundtable “Right Turn: France’s experience for Ukraine”

On 6 July 2007, the International Center for Policy Studies held a roundtable called “Right Turn: France’s experience for Ukraine.” At this roundtable, ICPS presented a brief on the successful experience of France’s rightists in dissipating leftist stereotypes and promoting liberal values and reforms during the 2007 presidential election.

Participants included high-profile politicians, Government officials, businesspeople, specialists, and representatives of foreign countries, such as, the Head of the French Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE and UMP faction Deputy to the French Parliament Michel Voisin; member of the French Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE and PS faction Deputy to the French Parliament Alain Nåri, VR Deputy Oksana Bilozir, VR Deputy Yuriy Miroshnychenko, Viche leader and Deputy Minister of Justice Inna Bohoslovska, Presidential Adviser Oleh Rybachuk, PORA leader Andriy Yusov, Honorary Chair of the ICPS Supervisory Board and President of the National Academy of Public Administration under the President of Ukraine Vira Nanivska, ICPS Director Volodymyr Nikitin, ICPS expert Natalia Shapovalova, 5 Kanal anchor Yegor Sobolyev, Expert political editor Oleh Voloshyn, Haidai.Com Director for Strategic Planning Serhiy Haidai, and First Counsellor at the Embassy of France to Ukraine Hugues Fantou.

In its evolution, Ukraine continues to walk inside the vicious circle of socialism. Ukrainian voters live according to market rules, they would like to see private property expanded, and they want fair competition. Yet, through sheer inertia, they recreate soviet stereotypes as regards social equality, state paternalism and the damaging role of business. In their chase after votes, politicians are also oriented on these leftist stereotypes and currently there is not a single party that has not built its platform around populist leftist catchphrases. As a result, leftist stereotypes steer state policy and make it impossible to follow a more liberal reform line that would make money work for the future of Ukraine’s citizens, the country’s development, and a system of social security.

How possible is it for politicians or parties to emerge in Ukraine that will be courageous enough to say clearly that leftist stereotypes are leading Ukrainians down a blind alley and to call openly for liberal policies? To find some answers to these questions, ICPS proposes that we all consider the recent results of presidential and parliamentary elections in France.

In 2007, the French made a conscious choice in favor of a liberal path of development, where entrepreneurship, and not the state, is the main driving force. For the first time in decades, the French voted for a president who publicly and openly promoted liberal values: freedom of entrepreneurship and the rejection of an equalizing system of social security.

France underwent not just a right turn, but a revolution of the right. Although this country has long had market-based laws, French society is dominated by leftist persuasions. The French are oriented towards a paternalistic state and cradle-to-grave social protection. This is why both leftist and rightist parties over the last decades have focused their political platforms on social programs.

The result of this kind of policy led to negative socio-economic consequences. Over the last 25 years, France has fallen from 7th to 17th position in terms of GDP per person, unemployment is 20% among the young, and the French are heavily burdened by taxes, whose upper limit can shoulder the burden of an all-encompassing social security system, and it faced a growing class of “outsiders”—the permanently jobless residents of the banlieues (suburbs) and immigrant ghettos for whom welfare benefits were often the only source of income.

In stepping forward with a liberal program and winning the election, Nicolas Sarkozy shattered two powerful stereotypes. In taking on the left, he shook the faith of the French in the notion that only leftist, socialist policy could lead to society-wide wellbeing: without incentives for economic growth and increased profits for entrepreneurs, social benefits cannot expand. In taking on the left wing of his own party, Sarkozy proved that the left-leaning French voter, spoiled by social guarantees, was prepared to vote for sincerely and openly propagated liberal ideas—provided that they were based on common sense.