Globalization And The Eu: Will France Integrate And Cooperate?

Charles de Gaulle stated: “Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.” Throughout history, France and its people have upheld an age-old tradition of fiery, strong nationalism and patriotism under the ideas of Charles de Gaulle. However, in recent years, this nationalism has come under fire by the persistent push for European integration by various parties in France and the European Union. Since the passing of the Schuman Declaration in 1950, which established the European Coal and Steel Company, integration has been key in the development of European countries, although becoming increasingly ...view middle of the document...

The main reason for the ratification of this treaty is because with the signing of the treaty, a new, international currency was to be created by 2000. Those who opposed this treaty opposed the idea of an international economy, specifically international interest rates (Guyomarch, Machin and Ritchie 8). Those who rose up against this international integration began to adopt the idea of “Euroscepticism”, which is defined as “Doubt or hostility concerning the advance of European integration (Flood 41).” The citizens who opposed integration formed a far-left political party to mobilize against the globalization called Attac (Association pour une taxation des transactions financières pour l’aide aux citoyens) (Waters 855). This group is spearheaded by French intellectuals from universities, press and political circles (860). This group is increasing in popularity as the obvious flaws in EU planning are becoming more evident. One-fifth of the total French population aligned with anti-EU far-left in the 2002 presidential election (Drake 5,6). This increasing dissent is causing a huge rift in French political life. With the creation of various political parties, notably Attac, to battle this increasing international integration, the already large field of political parties has grown to support this dissent.The most recent elections for the European Parliament in France proved to be an interesting one. Six parties received over one million of the 17,168,681 votes cast. The Socialist Party received 29%, the Union for a Popular Movement received 17%, The Union for French Democracy received 12%, The National Front received 10%, The Verts (Greens) received 7.5%, and the Various Right received 9%. All of these parties received seats in the European Parliament based on the proportion of the votes they received, each holding more than one seat (Drake 7). We’ve talked in Foreign Governments class about how a multi-party system often has trouble agreeing on different issues. It’s clear that with 6 French parties alone holding more than one seat in the European Parliament, ideas on degrees of integration will vary. Unfortunately, with 6 parties just from France, the many different parties from other countries will also have plans and proposals for European Integration. With all of these dissenting views in the European Parliament, it will be hard, if not impossible, to agree on anything in a forward direction.In French national politics, there also has been a growth of political parties, especially since the passing of the Maastricht treaty (Buffotot and Hanley 135). There has been an increase in the overall percentage of votes cast for parties supporting Eurosceptic positions. Many extreme right-wing parties have also started to adopt these platforms (Startin 65). The most notable party that has risen up against the EU is the Attac group, which has already been mentioned. This extreme left-wing party has seen almost...