France: torn between the US and Eurasia

On the 26th of November, a meeting of Hollande and Putin will take place in Moscow. Following the terrorist attacks in France on Friday the 13th, Hollande began to search for partners in the war against terrorism. His first meeting was with David Cameron (November 23rd), followed by Obama (November 24th), the 25th with Angela Merkel; and today he met with Matteo Renzi, followed by a meeting with Putin in Moscow in the evening.

Mixed identity

France has the double geopolitical identity. This duality is a consistent characteristic of French politics. We see in Modern French history, the confrontation of Atlanticist and Continental geopolitical positions. Being between the West and Eurasia – France was and is a battlefield for the influence of different geopolitical poles.

Internal divisions

France has internal divisions in its geopolitical orientation. Gaullism (and especially the anti-American aspect of it) is still alive in people’s political consciousness. The right-wing political parties follow the anti-globalist tendencies of Gaullism (the “National Front” and " Les Republicains”). Furthermore the French nation experiences a Gaullistic geopolitical perception of the world. But the political elites (French and European together) are thinking and behaving in an opposite manner  - in a pro-American and globalist style.

Face to face with reality

Hesitations of Hollande are a sign of the unstable political course of France, and also of the European political elites.  The European Union starts to face a problematic reality: immigration, terrorism, and the economic crisis (in the wake of sanctions against Russia). This is the reality which they have themselves created, and will increasingly do so, because that is the basic strategy of  the liberal ideology which they are clearly loyal to.