Issue 2

<div class="page old_photo"> <article> <header style="background-image:url(/uploads/52f9850b286d1.jpg);"> <div class="box"> <div class="intro"> <h1>Our Man in Paris </h1> James Rimmer </div> </div> </header> <div class="main"> <div class="container"> From the Rio Grande to Alert, from Cape Spear to the end of the Aleutian Islands, one man represents.                                            <img src="http://i2.wp.com/frederic-lefebvre.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/mWbuLv9H2PHnvUBcewcW4ejrDSqD3wfhhrIFSqHRqsAzfociu1jIszBrNaUACEFmUuutvfvfLVmUckPYE7tOUMOu_J_vdm3n4_YJ1zHloJg8YjEiJZih3__7_LH6BNog02.jpeg?resize=283,237" alt="" style="width: 286px;">                                                       M. Frédéric Lefebvre. Or more precisely, M. Frédéric Lefebvre represents the little over 200,000 French citizens who live in the 1ère circoncription des Français établis hors de France – Amérique du Nord. It is one of eleven such ridings, created in 2010, that allow French citizens living overseas to vote for their own representative in elections. These eleven representatives sit in the Assemblée Nationale with full privileges.The only difference between them and the member pour Haute-Seine is the size. One overseas riding covers all of central and South America. Another covers the 49 countries that stretch from Ukraine and Belarus to New Zealand and the expanses of the pacific. That’s a lot of air time required to stump the Sociétiés Françaises of Wellington, Bangkok, Tashkent and Seoul. M. Lefebvre’s latest riding tour saw him tour Quebec City, Montreal, Chicago, New York, Boston, Detroit in eight days, a trip of thousands of miles covering only a narrow band of his constituency. So who is this M. Lefebvre, North American’s voice in La Republique? What are his political views? What has be done in office? Ultimately why should we, non-French citizenship holding North Americans care?M. Lefebvre did not take the traditional road to office. He lost the 2012 election to Socialist Corinne Narassiguin, a native of the French island of Reunion who worked as a banker in New York. It was Narrassiguin’s command of the Franco-Canadian vote – 63% - that allowed her to overcome Lefebvre’s narrower American support and win the seat.However on February 15th, 2013, France’s constitutional court ruled Narassiguin’s use of American bank accounts in her campaign a violation of electoral rules. She was removed from her seat and banned from running for several years.Lefebvre was victorious in a by-election the following June, helped by increased Franco-American support and decreased Franco-Canadian turnout. So who is this come back kid?                                           <img src="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRDQjIxz3F-tyeod9UzCBj85bM_X1sBmVTMVSPN4rp3CRZ-7Vnp_g" alt="">                                                      The Come-Back Kid. His English language Wikipedia page calls him a carpetbagger, though I prefer back-room boy. A friend of Sarkozy, he has spent his career working for with Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP) and the former president. Lefebvre was the Presidential spokesman from 2008 to 2010. In 2010 he was named to Sarkozy’s cabinet, as Secretary of State for Commerce, Small business, Tourism, Services, Professions and Consumption.In terms of electoral experience, he was first elected as assistant mayor in the town of Garches in 1989. He held his seat until 2007. In 2004 he was elected to the regional council of Ile-de-France, a position he still holds. From 2007 to 2009 he represented Hauts-de-seine in the House of Representatives, filling out the term of Andre Santini, who had been appointed to cabinet.Outside of politics, he helped found a lobby firm, Perroquet Institutional Communication, in the 1990s and in 2011 set up the think tank Nouveau Horizons. They no longer seem active the web domaine noueauhorizons.fr is now for an art group.Lefebvre has penned two books, Le Meiux est l’Ami du Bien, and Le Travail D’aujourd’hui. Le Meiux est l’Ami du Bien is a discussion of Lefebrve’s beliefs about how to best reform the French state. Le Travail D’aujourd’hui deals with Lefebvre’s ideas on labour market reform. To say Lefebvre is deeply connected with Sarkozy and the UMP is an understatement. He was Sarkozy’s parliamentary assistant. He has worked on UMPs campaigns, represented their views, and planned their strategies. In 2012 he was one of the founding members of “Amis de N. Sarkozy" a group working to defend the goals and legacy of Sarkozy. More than any ideological particular position Lefebvre is best defined by his support for Sarkozy and his belief in the need to reform France. Speaking of his views, what are they? Though translating political positions across cultures and systems is difficult, it is easiest to describe Lefebvre as an economic conservative with a reformist bent.He argues for lower and simpler taxes, more flexible labour laws and less state regulation. He pushes for austerity measures to reign in France’s deficit. He has moved legislation requiring balanced budgets. As he said in a letter to HuffingtonPost.fr “The real enemy is not finance, but the tentacles of the state”He appears regularly in the media, a vocal opponent of President Hollande. He has attacked Hollande’s economic management and claimed the government is deaf to the concerns of French overseas. In an interview with L’outarde Libérée, a Franco-Quebecois publication,  he claimed that the culture minister did not even understand the technology behind his motion to allow French citizens overseas to access French public TV.           <img src="http://i1.wp.com/frederic-lefebvre.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/BU6_eUrCQAAnTCS.jpg?resize=600,450" alt="">           Lefebvre on TVHis positions on non-economic issues are more oblique. He gave his tentative to support to gay marriage in an interview with France-Amerique, a language media outlet based in the states. Due to the timing of the by-election he missed voting on the gay marriage motion.He was careful with his words in another interview with L’outarde Liberée with regard to Quebec’s Charter of Values. He defended the French secular model while stating “France is not in a place to give lessons on immigration” He stated that each culture, in its own own context must negotiate secularism.He does not appear to have spoken publicly on Quebec’s independence.He has been a busy representative. As he boasts in a blog post he moved four motions in the house in his first 100 days. Like any good member, these motions focus on the particular needs of his constituents. He has moved to make it easier for French citizens overseas to access their pensions and social benefits. He has moved changes that would allow French citizens who pay for the state TV license to access that content overseas.None of these motions passed.Outside the legislature he has lobbied for his constituents. He participated in the lobbying efforts to have French trained nurses’ accreditation be accepted by Quebec. In early January this year Quebec signed an accord with France allowing mutual recognition of nurses.                <img src="http://i0.wp.com/frederic-lefebvre.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Marois.jpg?resize=455,480" alt="">                     Lefebvre with Premier Marois. Cynics can see this as simply the story of a party loyalist being rewarded with an supposedly easy seat. But I think M. Lefebvre and his chair matter much more than party politics.In a globalized, connected world, public policy debates are not contained within airtight nation- state spheres. All domestic policy is foreign, projecting a world view, a set of assumptions and influencing the daily lives of people around the world. Beyond immigration and trade, French agricultural, education and cultural policies impact North Americans in a myriad of direct and indirect ways.The accord concerning nurses is an example. The deal allowed the over 600 French trained nurses in Quebec to use their skills, changing just who would be delivering health care in the province. While this change is not drastic in any way, it will have a major impact on those nurses, and their patients.Traditionally, impacted groups would lobby foreign governments via their country’s executive. Groups would lean on their government to lean on the foreign government. This process however suffers from significant lag, high communication costs with low probability of meaningful success.By having a North American representative, the old process is shortened. Both French and non-French North Americans now and an individual they can directly lobby and appeal to. A representative that is familiar with their experiences, knowledgeable of their issues and shaped by their perspectives. A representative that is right at the heart of the French domestic public policy process.                                      <img src="https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSAuevyZ0k0pir6hxrvjnGxTYVcL3XwuJjpaofA5F1mKAjj5KtxWw">                                              Lefebvre in the Assemblée Nationale </div> </div> </article> </div>

Share

Issue 2