Abstract
This article draws upon developments in UK research on political rhetoric and political performance in order to examine the incident in 2013 when French President François Hollande committed French forces to a US-led punitive strike against Syria, after the use of chemical weapons in a Damascus suburb on 21 August. The US-led retaliation did not take place. This article analyses Hollande’s declaration on 27 July and his TV appearance on 15 September. His rhetoric and style are best understood as generic to the nature of the presidential office of the Fifth Republic. The article concludes by appraising how analysis of the French case contributes to the developing literature on rhetoric, celebrity and performance.
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Notes
These types of journal still dominate but are changing. Mots has a research interest in rhetoric. There is also a renewal of interest, for example, via the semiology of political communication (Bertrand et al, 2007; Mayaffre, 2012), and recently, based at Sciences-Po Paris, the new rhetoric group, Aequinox.
France reintegrated into the command structure of NATO in March 2009 (by Sarkozy and opposed by Hollande). It had also successfully intervened, leading the NATO-backed coalition of the United Kingdom, the United States and France in Libya in March 2011. It intervened, again successfully, in Mali and with international approval, if not help, in January 2013. These, however, were recent developments in a troubled history of French foreign policy, largely conditioned, driven even, by France’s highly problematic relationship with the United States and its foreign policy. France had joined the international coalition in 1991 in the first Gulf War, but it was the second Gulf War of 2003 that most recently defined the very poor relations between the United States and France (Gaffney, 2004).
The Le Monde interview occurred at exactly the same moment as the UK parliamentary vote against military involvement, so it was – especially given the international nature of the newspaper – a public act of Hollande’s personal resolve and courage. On 28 August, much was also made of the army’s preparedness for battle (awaiting only the President’s order). On the same day, Hollande met the leader of the Syrian opposition. Each of these created the sense of military action within the following days.
This international conference took place but was inconsequential. On 13 December 2013 the UN inspectors report was published. It established use of chemical weapons in at least four cases, but still was equivocal regarding responsibility. Ironically, exactly one year later on 28 August 2014, Hollande called for military action against islamic state who were fighting Bashar Al-Assad.
The ‘Leonarda Affair’ taking place at the same time concerned the treatment of a Kosovan family being deported from France. The public involvement of Hollande in this at the same time as Syria was equally humiliating for the President as he handled it even less well. These two issues, one ‘high’ and one ‘low’, are a stark illustration of the President’s involvement in all aspects of politics and policy, from a minor Home Affairs issue to France on the international stage.
Putin’s failure to rein in separatists in Ukraine, particularly in the aftermath of the shooting down of flight MH17 in July 2014, severely affected this image.
There is also a ‘systemic’ aspect to this issue, namely, that Hollande became President almost accidentally (after Dominique Strauss-Kahn failed to enter the party primaries). In this way, Hollande became President of the Republic and Head of the Armed Forces without any governmental experience, let alone foreign policy or diplomatic experience.
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Gaffney, J. Political leadership and the politics of performance: France, Syria and the chemical weapons crisis of 2013. Fr Polit 12, 218–234 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/fp.2014.17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/fp.2014.17