With respect to the discourses on national identity that flourished in France before and after the presidential election of 2007, this paper examines the policies employed by President Niclolas Sarkozy regarding the issue of national identity. Starting with the 68 Revolution, the full-fledged French debates on national identity rapidly expanded to the political sphere around the time when the Socialist Party, led by Francois Mitterand, seized power in 1981. This phenomenon was closely related to Muslim immigration in France and the political growth of the National Front, an ultra-rightist party in France.
Why did Mr. Sarkozy raise this question again in the 2007 presidential election? When the National Front reached the second-round final ballot in the 2002 presidential election, the leaders of the UMP (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire), the administrative party at the time, were shocked by the rapid progress of such an extremely rightist party. In this situation, it was unclear to the UMP leaders whether they would be able to win the 2007 presidential election or not. To them, the social disturbances caused by Muslim immigrants in 2005 made the situation worse. This unfavorable situation urged Mr. Sarkozy, the candidate on the UMP ticket, to place the issue of national identity against Muslim immigrants higher than the traditional social issues on the crowded list of priorities in the 2007 campaign. This election strategy paid off. His campaign against immigrants garnered wide support from the populace, who were then very sensitive to the social issues such as illegal immigration and French national identity, with the result that the UMP won the election in a landslide victory. Since then, Mr. Sarkozy has been fulfilling his campaign pledges by signing a series of bills for the establishment of the Department of Immigration, designed to tighten regulations on immigration to France, and for the prohibition of wearing the Burqa. Mr. Sarkozy and the UMP will map out new campaign strategies regarding the issue of national identity for the 2012 presidential election vis-a-vis Marine Le Pen on the National Front ticket, whose approval ratings for the presidency has steadily increased according to recent opinion polls.
These days, however, the issue of national identity is not confined in France. As seen in the recent tragedy in Oslo, Norway, the Scandinavian countries, which have been believed as a region of acceptance in terms of racial and cultural diversity, are now fully exposed to the same issue. This situational trend in contemporary Europe will go on for the time being towards a rejection of cultural diversity and the emphasis of a less heterogeneous national identity.