The difficulty of building a liberal party in France

For the first time since 2007, we’ve not been able to submit any list of liberal candidates to the regional election in France. This is due to the lack of coordination among the different political movements representing the liberals.Our absence, though regrettable and regretted, is not anecdotal. On the contrary, this lack of candidature underlines the wanderings of our strategy as well as the weaknesses deriving from our divisions. If we do not fix that matter of state, the alternative we represent, may disappear before 2012. Therefore, we must identify the difficulties we have met to spread the liberal ideas within the French political life landscape, and we must find solutions enabling us to overcome these difficulties.

First of all, we are victims of the cliché about liberalism that have been conveyed by our political opponents over more thanfifty years. Liberals would be servants the Big Capital in defiance of working class, would liquidate the national sovereignty for the benefit of the European Union and the United States, would dispose of the family values for decadent customs… Often placed in the right of the right on the political scene, liberals appear to be considered as dangerous as the ‘Front National’ extreme right party. Obviously, they have been the common scapegoat for the numerous crises that went through our country, although since 1958 no liberals have had the opportunity to manage France.

For four years, we tried to defuse patiently and accurately our opponents’ rhetoric. In that aim, we drafted a program not onlylimited to the economic questions, but including public liberties, environment, kingly offices of the State, as well as the place of France in the world (http://www.alternative-liberale.fr). Besides this, we tried to get closer from the centrists of the UDF during the presidential elections in 2007, when Nicolas Sarkozy campaigned by claiming itself as a liberal. His voters have since understood that they had been fooled by speeches that were never followed by acts. Some of them joined us, however the family of the liberals remains divided.

Indeed, after 2002’s dissolution of ‘Democratie Libérale’ party, whereas the UMP was being created, liberals came to be scattered. Some of them became members of the UMP, but remain unable to build an influential political opinion. Some others pursued their commitment through the civil society and the associative life. And so was set up the association ‘ Beloved Freedom’ in 2003. However, it was necessary to wait for the spring 2006 that a group of thirty-years old took up the challenge to create an independent liberal party: called ‘Alternative Liberale’.

However, the environment of a young political movement shows itself quickly hostile. Indeed, it is necessary to master quickly and precisely all the strict financial and legal rules, to succeed on penetrating the tough media’s world, and fit its speeches to the political schedule held by the party in power. All these constraints prevent the emergence and the development of new political formations. So that the expression of the democratic debate remains completely checked.

Since we know the obstacles to our success, we’ve got fight and find a way to surmount them.
Our ambition may be express through three purposes:

• Merging the two existing liberal parties ‘Liberal Alternative’ and ‘the Liberal Democratic Party’ into one single party. Because we cannot keep on working separately, knowing our programs and our objectives are quite similar. Is it necessary to merge or to federate? What will be the new decision-making organs of governance? The debate is opened.
  
• Positioning on the political scene, because the voting system of the national election obliges us to be in the majority or in the opposition. So, until 2012, shall we define which other political strengths we could work with?
  
• Opening to the liberals of the civil society and other political movements, because they are our partners and our priority allies. It will be necessary to build solid bridges between them and us.
  

It is now time for action. We have to aim at two targets. At first, we have to keep field. The second is to propose a new plan for our society that will meet French citizens’ expectations.

Vincent MAURICARDVice-president of ‘Alternative Liberale’