The Burdensome Heritage of Prestige Politics

Abstract

In the weeks preceding the French referendum of 30 April 2005 on the European Union Constitutional Treaty, former President Giscard d’Estaing put his weight behind a text over whose elaboration he had presided. In town halls and television studios, he tried to convince his compatriots that accepting the treaty was in their interest. He argued that a major reason to vote ‘yes’ was because the constitution would ‘give back to France its rank in Europe and the world’.¹ This argument implied that France had lost its rank, that it was no longer a nation which ‘is not a country like all the others’, as claimed by President Chirac (2007), and that something had to be done to recover its former prominent rank. Such calls are frequently heard in French political debates. The recurrent use of the term ‘rank’ speaks volumes about how France is perceived by its political elite: the term implies notions of hierarchy, superiority and distinction.