Irwin Stelzer

Sarkozy’s dream of taming America is doomed

The American model of lightly regulated capitalism may be in disrepute, says Irwin Stelzer. But the French President’s ambition is deluded

The American model of lightly regulated capitalism may be in disrepute, says Irwin Stelzer. But the French President’s ambition is deluded

French presidents/emperors are given to delusion. Napoleon thought he could conquer the Russian winter. Charles de Gaulle thought he heard voices anointing him the leader of the Free French, and later deluded himself into believing that he — not the British and the Americans, not Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt — liberated France from the Nazis, to whom the massive French army had quickly surrendered just a few years earlier.

And now we have Nicolas Sarkozy. Taller than Napoleon, shorter than de Gaulle, but equally susceptible to delusions. And more than one. The first is that he can turn back the tide of globalisation, hold back the tides of capital that wash across national borders. So he has set up one of the 20 largest investment funds in the world, to be managed by state-backed Caisse des Dépôts, its purpose to prevent foreign companies from buying French enterprises. ‘The day we stop building trains, aircraft, cars and ships, what is left of the French economy? I will not turn France into a reserve for tourists,’ he said last week. He might have added that the soul of the nation would wither were foreigners to gain control of Danone, the yogurt-maker, which he has also declared off-limits to foreigners.

Meanwhile EDF, France’s state-owned electricity monopoly, is purchasing British Energy and control of Britain’s nuclear power industry. This transfers to Paris decisions concerning the allocation of investment funds between facilities needed to keep French consumers and industries adequately supplied with affordable electricity, and those needed in Britain. Sarkozy is untroubled by the contradictions inherent in his combination of protecting French companies while acquiring overseas enterprises.

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