As a historian of the right, I note that Nicolas Sarkozy consolidated neoliberalism in France. Neoliberalism is not an insult under my pen, but the word which defines the liberal political family, born under the French Revolution and which then developed in Orléanism, the moderate republicans (Ferry, Poincaré, Pinay), pompidolism, giscardism, etc., up to macronism.
This neoliberalism was born in the 1930s (Lippmann conference, in particular) on the basis of an analysis made by a number of liberals, when we had barely left the Popular Front: the traditional laissez-faire pass was no longer suitable. to the challenges of an increasingly complex economy and the competition-threat of collectivism (USSR but not only). We must therefore rethink the role of the State in the economy and systematically associate, institutionally if you like, the State and the business world, so that the State's primary mission is to guarantee the conditions of development of “the market economy”, as the liberals say.
In this sense, Nicolas Sarkozy was an effective neoliberal (in the 2008 crisis in particular, in the fiscal, social, etc. measures adopted, etc.). Just like Emmanuel Macron today, but also François Hollande from 2012 to 2017, who did not pursue a socialist policy.
This was effective, I repeat, from the point of view of the supporters of the liberal family.
Has this been beneficial to French society as a whole? I have a citizen's opinion. You too, but this is not the place to discuss it here.
