An Unlikely Contender Rises in France as the Antithesis of Trump.

[elleng]

PARIS — In the age of Donald J. Trump, “Brexit,” and the resurgent French far right, a thin, aging career politician with an ironic smile is being called — by him and his supporters — France’s best defense against raging global populism.

A first test for Alain Juppé, 71, comes Sunday as France’s mainstream center-right Republican party holds a primary ahead of next spring’s presidential elections. Mr. Juppé is favored to come out on top, for now.

His ascendance is all the more improbable because, in a previous post, he was considered one of France’s most unpopular prime ministers ever. And he was once convicted in a Paris City Hall corruption scheme.

But the election of Mr. Trump has upended French politics and given new momentum to the far-right leader Marine Le Pen. As a result, mainstream conservatives are far from delighted.

The candidacy of the battle-scarred Mr. Juppé is seen by his supporters as a bulwark at a time when the postelection United States is now routinely depicted as one leg of a global tripartite menace, along with China and Russia, bearing down on fragile Western democracies.

Mr. Juppé doesn’t shout, wave his arms or make grandiose promises — seen as a plus by his supporters. His professorial bearing stands in contrast to his sometimes bombastic and offending party rival, Nicolas Sarkozy, the former president who has redefined himself as a tough guy for uncertain times.

But while other contenders for the presidency are adopting Mr. Trump’s depiction of Muslims as an inherent threat, Mr. Juppé’s soothing message of French unity has, so far, helped him to lead opinion polls.

Still, Mr. Juppé’s tenure as prime minister during the 1990s was one of the most divisive in modern French history, marked by proposed cutbacks to generous civil-servant pensions that brought thousands into the streets in protest. Mr. Juppé’s plan ultimately failed.

This time around, he has promised more market-oriented reforms, and has vowed not to back down in the face of inevitable protests. In that regard, the technocratic Mr. Juppé, of all the contenders, may present the biggest challenge to France’s social protections and labor rules. . .

The French news media has noted that the American election results have colored the former prime minister’s message with concern about the existence of two Frances: one benefiting from globalization, and the other left behind.

There are the large, vibrant cities — Paris, Lyon, Mr. Juppé’s Bordeaux — and then there are the shuttered main streets of sleepy provincial capitals and rural towns like those he visited on Wednesday.

Wearing the coat and tie he appears never to shed, Mr. Juppé got his shoes muddy at a grain and dairy farm whose owner complained of crushing debt.

“People have talked about suffering,” Mr. Juppé told a roomful in the tiny village of St.-Loup-d’Ordon, “and it is true,” he said, speaking in a knowing, weary tone, careful never to exaggerate.

With his eyebrows slightly arched, he listened patiently to the complaints. Rural France feels “abandoned” and “disdained” by Paris, Mr. Juppé said. “But we can’t accept this gulf between the big cities and rural France.” . .

Promising a “strong state,” he had a warning for his audience deep in the Burgundian countryside at St.-Julien-du-Sault: “The world is becoming more and more dangerous. Nationalism is on the rise.”

Similarly, at a rally this week in northern Paris, the perceived menace of rising populism was a common theme in the speeches and comments of Mr. Juppé’s supporters.

From Mr. Juppé himself and the other center-right speakers who preceded him, Mr. Trump’s name came up often. Each time, it was met with loud boos from the crowd of around 6,000. Mr. Juppé — “a man of culture,” one speaker called him — was depicted as the antithesis of Mr. Trump.

“After the election of Donald Trump, after Brexit, will populism triumph in our country? No!” shouted Patrick Devedjian, a former minister, who introduced Mr. Juppé at the rally.

The crowd — mostly middle-aged or older, buttoned-up and carefully dressed, like Mr. Juppé — roared approval. “We’ve had it up to here with populist baseness!” Mr. Devedjian said.

Another supporter, Jean-Christophe Lagarde, a prominent centrist politician, told the crowd, “France doesn’t need a mini-Trump in the Élysée!” — referring to the presidential palace in Paris.'>>>

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/19/world/europe/france-alain-juppe-center-right.html?


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