Immortalisation at the Cost of Identity

Written by Matthew Cripsey | 19 November 2010
Posted in Comment - Europe

Sarkozy in Downing Street. Photograph: Crown Copyright

Staff at the National Archives in Paris have, this week, been campaigning against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s controversial plans for a museum of national history. The museum represents Sarkozy’s attempt to leave behind a cultural legacy, just as François Mitterrand did with the Louvre Pyramid and Georges Pompidou with his museum of contemporary art. However, many historians claim that the planned museum is just another way for Sarkozy to push his rightwing ideologies.
Sarkozy declared that his aim was to reinforce national identity through the chronological presentation of important French figures. The more right-wing Frenchman may see this as being a perfectly acceptable proposal but it negates the role that immigration has played in France’s long history; Sarkozy is pushing his nationalist views more and more forcefully into the public eye, attempting to use history to his own ends. The French Ministry of Culture ought to create museums that portray objectively the history of France, not the country’s history as Sarkozy sees it.

During “Les Trentes Glorieuses” (1945-75), a time of rapid economic growth for France, the government had to permit mass immigration in order to have a large enough workforce to allow expansion to happen as rapidly as it did. This exponential economic growth led to higher wages, higher consumption, a very highly developed system of social benefits, and made the French standard of living one of the highest in Europe. It could not have been achieved without the huge foreign workforce. So then, how is it fair to define national identity solely through the portrayal of French figures of historical importance?

After being elected, President Sarkozy said that France was still struggling to deal with its collaboration during the Second World War and its colonialism in North Africa, but does this museum really seem like the best way to go about raising the self-belief of a country? I’d say it was more likely to alienate the thousands of immigrants who have settled in France and give French nationalists a real foothold.

Back in 1959 when the French Ministry of Culture was created, one of André Malraux’s tasks as its Minister was to instil a sense of national pride in the French population, and I think national pride is still something that the French government is seeking to reinforce, given Sarkozy’s afore-mentioned post-election statement. A pride in one’s country gives the population a drive and a common interest that can play a key role in bringing people together from all the different backgrounds. It is important to note, however, that national pride or patriotism is markedly different from nationalism. Sarkozy’s nationalist views are clear in his policies, especially his recent initiative to expel Roma gypsies from France, which one EU commissioner compared to Vichy France’s ethnic cleansing during the Nazi Occupation. For someone so eager to gain voters’ confidence in preparation for the 2012 presidential elections, he seems to be alienating a lot of people.

All in all, perhaps it would be better if in future, presidents of France did not pursue so whole-heartedly their immortalisation through a cultural legacy. In the 1980s the majority of the French people were against the building of the Louvre pyramid, but such is the power of the President that it went ahead anyway. Perhaps, in the sphere of culture, the people who contribute to that culture should be asked their opinion. I’m sure the foreign workforce who contributed to the greatness of France throughout “Les Trentes Glorieuses” would have something to say about Sarkozy’s museum of “national identity”.