A Socialist Lays It Bare for the French in America

No one — or almost no one — is interested in the “remake” of the laws in the American-Canadian region, but that is a mistake! Socialist candidate Franck Scemama, who faces the very Sarkozyist Frédéric Lefebvre in the second round [of elections], was campaigning Friday in Rockville, a Washington suburb, where he attracted … four — bless them — Libération [followers] included.

All of them and those who did not come out — or who are just not motivated about this election yet — missed a good moment of frank talk, explaining the singularity of these new “representatives of the French abroad.”

Scemama has proposed using as inspiration the American model on gay marriage in all of its aspects (surrogate parenting and medically assisted procreation), immigration (the American or Canadian example would allow for better seeing immigration as an opportunity or a necessity), or even employment contracts.

“In France, the CDI* has become a prison for salaried works,” he explains. “You must have a CDI in order to obtain housing or credit. As a result, permanent workers are ready to accept anything in order to get that famed CDI.”

In the American model, where there is no need to limit permanent workers to CDDs** because they can be fired that day or the next in practice, could also bring more flexibility to France, Scemama argues.

“What I see is a single work contact that would become more protective gradually, over time, meaning the salary would go up with seniority,” he said.

Does he truly want to lose this election? After he stepped in those minefields in just a matter of minutes, one is forced to ask him. But no, he responds always smiling, assuring that he could even maybe still win. With 25 percent of the vote in the first go and adding the Green candidate’s 7 percent, he was only 7 percentage points behind Corinne Narassiguin in the first election of 2012, calculates Scemama. To everyone’s surprise, the Socialist Narassiguin won the election with 8 percentage points on Lefebvre — 54 to 46 percent [of the vote] — in the second round. Last February [the Constitutional Council of France invalidated Narassiguin’s win] because she wrongly used a U.S. bank account for her campaign.

Socialists still hope that with his faulty command of English and lack of experience as an expat, the French of America will not want Lefebvre parachuting in. If they were right last June, the [current state of the] party foretells it will be much more difficult this time. The ambiance is no longer of “change now,” as promised by François Hollande but of general disillusionment.

Narassiguin has surprised certain voters by appearing to put all of her energy into the legislation on gay marriage. Her invalidation has not gone over very well, either. The Socialist government’s decision to brusquely suppress tuition support in French high schools abroad has also rubbed the thousands of families who were its beneficiaries the wrong way.

In the first round of this election, the only win was for abstention, which climbed to a record 87 percent of registered voters. The second round is already underway for the electronic vote. (Simple and practical, it is here.) It will conclude at the polls, Saturday, June 8.

*Editor’s note: CDI stands for “contrat à durée indéterminée,” which means an employment contract for an unspecified amount of time.

** Editor’s note: CDD stands for “contrat à durée déterminée,” which means an employment contract for a specified amount of time.