Occupy Wall Street French Edition: Arnaud Montebourg

Riding on the Occupy Wall Street’s theme, aspiring French politician Arnaud Montebourg appears to be making headway in French politics.

From Reuters, (bold emphasis mine)

French Socialist Arnaud Montebourg was eliminated in round one of his party's presidential primary Sunday, but his campaign against globalization, greedy banks and trash TV was such a hit that mainstream leftists may ignore it at their peril.

A 48-year-old lawyer and member of parliament, Montebourg scored a surprise 17 percent in Sunday's vote after proposing during televised Socialist Party debates to put banks on a tight leash and ramp up protectionism…

Montebourg's main proposition is that it is time to do away with the idea that France has no choice but to compete with the likes of China on prices when the latter is unbeatable because of lower social and environmental standards.

At a time when European governments are under pressure to yet again bail out the financial industry, Montebourg has struck a chord in proposing that banks be brought to heel by having the state buy stakes in them and put vote-wielding government officials on their boards.

"All those who have lost out from globalization have heard the proposals for a new France," Montebourg said Sunday.

Mr. Montebourg has essentially not been saying anything new when it comes to French politics, which have long been steeped in socialist democracy, except for imputing the culpability of banks to the ongoing crisis.

In the Eurozone or in the world, France has not been known as a political haven for capitalism (see Economist chart above)

But as this Economist April article says (bold emphasis mine)

Like their politicians, the French always sound defiantly anti-globalisation. In polls they are far more hostile to free markets than Germans, Chinese or Russians. Yet when it comes to buying or eating foreign stuff, they are as enthusiastic. France is one of the most profitable markets for McDonald’s. Judging by the dress code of French teenagers, there will be long queues outside Abercrombie & Fitch—though whether to buy the hooded tops or to eye up the sales staff may be another question.

Again this serves as another example of “do as I say but not as I do”

This means that for an aspiring politician like Mr. Montebourg, the way to get elected would require staple adherence to socialist rhetoric with a little populist twist—blame capitalist greed on politically privileged banks.

Besides, for Mr. Montebourg to propose more government presence in the banking system is hardly any change. What this does is to formalize or embed what has already been in place, an unsustainable welfare state financed by government protected towards government controlled banks.

Chart from Philipp Bagus

Yes banks, like in the US, have complicit roles played to the respective lingering political economic problem alright, but what Mr. Mountebourg has been missing is that overspending and bubble policies of the welfare state has functioned as the primary reasons for this unfolding crisis.

And institutionalizing government’s presence in the banking system will hardly be the solution; to the contrary this will even exacerbate the existing problems.

Yet despite Mr.Mountebourg’s emergent popularity, French politics has not been representative of the dominant political trend of the Eurozone.

From the Economist (dated June 7, 2011)