The Obama Phenomenon and French Political Parties

France’s political parties all want a piece of the ‘Obama effect’. Acting as campaign HQ for a ‘Democrat night’, the head office of the Democrat Movement (MoDem) in Paris had, on Tuesday 4th November, the kind of election evening not seen since the first round of the French presidential elections in April 2007. This time with a taste of victory. Hundreds of people, including many young supporters, followed the live election results all night, in a very ‘American’ atmosphere. Debates, transatlantic broadcasts and commentary on the results continued until dawn.

For the MoDem militants, there wasn’t the slightest doubt: Barack Obama was “their” candidate. Francois Bayrou greeted the victory of America’s new president, seeing in it “a change which affects the very beliefs we hold about human relationships”. “Hundreds of millions of women and men who felt like they were facing a brick wall, now see a door opening”, M. Bayou believes.

“Today, the Americans elected the American dream”, applauded the UMP, via its General Secretary Patrick Devedjian. “There is no doubt that the Obama phenomenon will have an influence on Europe and France”, he added. Although the UMP did not organise any special event, its leaders made no secret of having closely followed the Obama campaign, hoping to draw some lessons from it. The strategic overhaul of the UMP will be inspired by the example of the American Democrat’s journey. The UMP wants to create a similar online community network from scratch, capable of breaking down militant barriers to include the wider public, to turn internet users into sounding boards, and to turn its members into election officers.

According to the strategists of the president’s party, the key to Obama’s victory lies in the ‘ultra-professionalism’ of his campaign. They plan to apply the same principles for 2012. “Politics should not avoid showmanship, nothing is ever too prepared, or too stage-managed”, believes the PR agent Christophe Lambert, member of the UMP’s strategy team.

For the Socialist party, which did not send a delegation to the Democrat convention in Denver, Francois Hollande was expected to make a comment on Obama’s election on Wednesday morning. Segolene Royal said on Wednesday that she hoped that “mixed-race America” which had brought Obama the presidency would help “progress global fellowship”. Bertrand Delanoe hailed “an amazing message of hope and change”, while Jack Lang saw “a great, beautiful day for the world”. On Tuesday, even before the votes were counted, Faouzi Lamdaoui, equal opportunities secretary of the Socialist party, made an “appeal to the leaders of the left-wing and particularly the Socialist party”, by asking: “Where are our Barack Obamas?”