Sarkozy the protectionist. The outgoing French president, and candidate for re-election, first railed against illegal immigration, demanding from Europe a review of the Schengen agreements, then to the EU itself he formulated three proposals to protect the continent, and consequently its France, from international economic competition.
“Europe cannot remain the only region of the world not to defend itself – he thundered the former tenant of the Elysée -. We cannot continue to submit to the law of the strongest, and in order for France to be protected, the Union must do so first of all”. Yes to free trade, but no to unfair competition: this, in brief, is Sarko's thought, in the midst of his electoral campaign, which will see the response of French citizens in April.
In the President's sights in particular those countries, including for example China, which practice protectionism but at the same time flood the economies of more developed countries with their products. The first of Sarkozy's three proposals is that of a "Buy European Act", on the model of the "Buy American Act" implemented in 1933 during the great crisis and which provided that both the central government and the federal states should give preference to US companies in certain sectors when commissioning public contracts.
The second proposal put on the table by the furious Sarko, which is nothing more than a corollary of the first, concerns the European small and medium-sized enterprises, which will have to benefit from a "Small Business Act" European Union: "France expects SMEs to have a part of the market reserved for them". This theme, to tell the truth, had already been a must in the winning electoral campaign of 2007: the newly elected president of the French Republic brought the text of the proposal to Brussels, where, however, he was obstructed by various Nordic countries. The result was a misleading compromise: the SMEs obtained facilities for accessing bank loans, but they were not allocated a part of the market as initially hoped.
Sarkozy's third and final claim is commercial reciprocity with his European partners. "If there is no progress in this direction, France will act on its own," the UMP candidate even threatened. Speaking as if he were already President. Last time, however, it should be remembered, the protectionist enthusiasm brought him luck.
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