The French-American Foundation Weekly Brief

FRANCE

U.S. President Barack Obama traveled to France to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, and the White House provided the president’s official remarks in which he noted that “so much of the progress that would define the 20th century, on both sides of the Atlantic, came down to the battle for a slice of beach only six miles long and two miles wide.” The Elysée provided French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s remarks: “Those who defeated Nazism and fascism did so in the vision of a better world where law would replace brute force.” The BBC provided a slideshow of photographs from the day’s ceremonies.

The two leaders gave a joint press conference in Caen during which Obama noted that “the United States is a critical friend and ally of France,” and Sarkozy cited several recent instances of French-U.S. cooperation, including the accommodation of Guantanamo detainees and France’s return to NATO.  The Los Angeles Times noted comments in the French press on the brevity of the U.S. president’s direct contact with his French counterpart, and Le Monde called the rapport between the two a “choreographed closeness.” However, Obama told the press that his “whirlwind” tour of Paris was a result of his tight schedule and not a lack of regard for Europe as a policy priority, said the New York Times. The Associated Press described the Obama family’s short tour of Paris. Le Journal du Dimanche looked at the diplomatic dynamic between Obama and Sarkozy.

Le Figaro magazine completed a survey that showed that French and Americans see each other in an increasingly positive light and went on to call the relationship between France and the United States an “unfailing friendship.”

The Christian Science Monitor reported that the names of two people with alleged ties to Al Qaeda were on the list of passengers of Air France Flight 447. The Wall Street Journal said that authorities continue to collect bodies and debris from the water, including the aircraft’s tail fin. The New York Times described the feeling in the French village of Ermenonville, which is mourning the loss of three municipal counselors in the crash. Air France will replace the airspeed monitors on its Airbus A330s and A340s “within days,” according to The Telegraph.  

See also:  
– Bookforum.com: French culture under the Nazi occupation.
– The New York Times: Rachida Dati, the rise of a French meteor.

UNITED STATES

Agence France Presse reported that the first Guantanamo detainee has been transferred to the United States to face trial – Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a 34-year-old Tanzanian. RFI noted that he plead not guilty to charges related to the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. Lakhdar Boumediene, an Algerian detained at Guantanamo since 2002 and recently transferred to France, told L’Express that “nothing changed” at the camp after the inauguration of President Obama.

An 88-year-old white supremacist opened fire at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, mortally wounding a security guard, according to RFI.  Le Monde profiled the presumed assailant, James von Brunn, a self-styled writer and painter with many connections to anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi groups.

Salon.com looked at American politics through a European lens, arguing that rightist parties triumphed in the European elections thanks to “nationalism, populism, and recession,” and that the same phenomenon could occur in the United States.

Agence France Presse reported that the Obama administration has presented a law on health care reform to Congress that attempts to arrange for the coverage of 46 million uninsured Americans. In the Washington Post, Ezra Klein provided a primer on the different types of public health plans that could be put into place. The Wall Street Journal warned that a new public insurance program could lead to long waits and increased federal government involvement in treatment decisions.

Following similar models in France and Germany, the U.S. Congress has approved a program to encourage car owners to scrap their old vehicles and purchase new ones, according to Radio BFM. Le Blog Auto noted that the maximum amount for each subsidy would be $4,500.

See also:
– History Today: Thomas Paine, pamphleteer and observer of the French and American Revolutions.
– Le Ben Franklin Post: Fashion as art in America.

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

GlobalPost said that while some commemorated D-Day up in Normandy, the rest of France was worried about the state of the economy and the social safety nets that continue to shield some from poverty. Libération described a French payment of €150 to families of modest means as part of a larger economic stimulus plan, an initiative that includes a website to help families manage their budget. Challenges noted that the plan will cost €450 million.

Telos, along with the Center for European Studies at Sciences Po, hosted a discussion with Pascal Lamy, director-general of the World Trade Organization, on why “protectionism is not a solution.” The Institut Montaigne published a report on the reform of retirement pensions in France, arguing that a “big bang” may be necessary to remedy the system’s numerous problems.

An analysis from VoxEU argued that there is a link between increasing income inequality and an educational slowdown that has been occurring in the United States since the 1970s. The Chronicle of Higher Education asked, “Will Higher Education Be the Next Bubble to Burst?”

Le Monde reported that President Sarkozy announced a plan to invest one euro in renewable energies for every euro that is invested in nuclear power in France. A would-be “carbon tax” on the use of fossil fuels conceived of during the Grenelle de l’environnement and initially planned for 2010 will be delayed because of the continuing economic crisis, according to Libération.

See also:
– Bizjournals.com: A new face for Chrysler and Fiat.
– The New Republic: America after consumerism.

INTERNATIONAL

The European elections seemed an easy victory for France’s UMP, but France24 noted the surprising rise of Europe Ecologie, headed by the legendary leader of Paris’s student rebellion of May 1968, Daniel Cohn-Bendit. Monsters and Critics said that “Danny the Red” helped “turned the greens into big winners.” Le Figaro called the upsurge in support for the environmental party a “substantial transformation” of the political landscape. Marianne said that the centrist MoDem party “had a hangover” after their disappointing results, and Libération said that Socialist leader Martine Aubry is under pressure to turn things around for her party.

Gabonese President Omar Bongo, Africa’s longest-serving ruler, died in a Spanish hospital at the age of 73, according to the BBC. AllAfrica.com pointed out the initial confusion over the leader’s death, as Gabonese officials denied the Bongo had died.  The president of the Senate, Rose Francine Rogombé, was appointed interim president, according to L’Express. In an interview on Europe1, former French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing claimed Bongo might have illegally funded the presidential campaign of his then-rival, Jacques Chirac. Chirac denied the accusation, according to Le Monde.

At Project Syndicate, Joschka Fischer analyzed Germany’s relationship to Europe and asked whether the country was drifting away from the bloc. A new report from Bruegel evaluated the state of EU cohesion policy – the measures designed to reduce “welfare differences” across the EU’s regions and countries.

Euronews described the continuing disagreement between the United States and France over Turkish accession to the EU, evidenced by an exchange during the D-Day commemorations. French-American Foundation Young Leader Justin Vaisse wrote a Brookings analysis of the current U.S.-European relationship, concluding that “Europe appears both central to American interests and somewhat sidelined in the current diplomatic context.”

See also:
– La Vie des idées: Hybridity of Europe and the Muslim world.
– Le Temps: Multiple attacks in Pakistan.

The views expressed in the preceding press coverage are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the views of the French-American Foundation nor its directors, officers, employees or representatives.
 
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