La Vie Politique en France

In France, knowledge of politics, current events, and social issues must be revered. Everywhere I turn, I find that – for the most part – the French are debating, learning, reading, watching, and doing anything to stay informed. It’s a trend I’d like to copy myself (and I wish that many Americans did too).

I’m often surprised by how pervasive la vie politique is here. Once, I went downstairs at about 11pm and found my 19-year-old host brother Benoit not watching the French version of MTV, if that exists, but a student debate on education. When I picked up a copy of Telerama, their version of TV Guide, the front did not highlight some celebrity scandal but the debate about what it means to be French. The title was: “Nous sommes tous de mauvais francais.”




One excerpt I found interesting in the article: “Un citoyen American qui vit en France, meme s’il parle tres mal notre langue, sera considere, dans sa vie de tous les jours o meme dans ses rapports avec l‘administration, comme moins etranger qu’un Francias d’origine malienne: il aura moins de mal a trouver du travail, il sera moins souvent controle par la police, il fera l’objet de moins de prejudes.”

Or, “An American citizens, who lives in France, even if he speaks our language very poorly, will be considered, day-to-day or with his interactions with administration, less of a foreigner than a Frenchman from other origins: He will have less difficulty finding work, he will have less difficulty with the police, and he will be the victim of fewer prejudices.” Interesting.

Politics are persuasive at school as well. Even at my school, ESC Rouen, which is not a large campus, the former Vice-President of the European President and Minister of European Affairs, Pierre Moscovici, was brought in for a Q&A session with students. And they were not easy questions! At one point, they posted the results of a popularity poll among French politicians on a PPTX which showed he was in dead last – less than 5% approval rating. They asked him what he thought was the cause of that, and he was momentarily at a loss for words. Members of the audience had even more difficult questions for him.



One day, my host parents and I watched a national show featuring Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president. It was called “Paroles de Francais,” in which he was surrounded by about 10 French men and women who all had questions and complaints for him. The first was a girl who was unemployed (chomage = unemployment) and complained that she has been that way for 5 years. Another man, a businessman or owner of a mid-size company, complained about the movement of goods, and Sarkozy said that what is unfortunate is the cheaper goods coming from countries that don’t respect labor laws.One of the more interesting exchanges (keep in mind, I could only follow about 15% of the conversation) was between Sarkozy and a milk farmer. Apparently prices for dairy decreased significantly last year, and the farmer lost 54% of her income.

So from here on out, I will try to keep on top of current events in France better (and around the globe). Guess I should hop on lemonde.fr right now…