Q&A:France's 'Miss Thatcher' Sabine Herold

par Gareth Harding

Source : The Washington Times

http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20040916-093748-3036r.htm

Last year, Sabine Herold -- then a 21-year old politics student -- became the pin-up girl of the French right after she organized a series of massive demonstrations against striking trade unionists in Paris.

Since then, the spokesperson of the libertarian pressure group Liberté Cherie has taken to the streets in favor of the Iraq war, against Fidel Castro's dictatorship in Cuba and in support of research into genetically-modified crops, earning her the nickname "Mademoiselle Thatcher" in the British press and sparking a violent reaction from left-wing groups in France. United Press International talked to the articulate free-market fan about her loathing for President Jacques Chirac, her admiration for the United States and her aversion to Che Guevara T-shirts.

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Q. How do you explain the extent of anti-Americanism in France? Is it envy or superiority?

A. I think its more envy. I love this sentence by (former Spanish Premier Jose-Maria) Aznar, when he said: "You only talk about cultural uniqueness when you are afraid your culture might disappear." He meant that you can only defend French culture if the people want it. It can't be decided by the state, it has to come from below. Why don't French people like America? Maybe because they see a country which liberated it twice and they don't like to be in its debt. Maybe because French used to be the language learned everywhere, and that's no longer the case. Or maybe because France used to be important internationally, and that's no longer true. At the end of the day, you can't be a political player unless your economy is in good shape.

Q. Is it also to do with the invasion of American films and fast-food stores? Do you worry about those developments?

A. You can choose which film you want to see and what food you want to eat. Personally, I almost never go to McDonalds because I don't like it, but I don't feel oppressed because I see a McDonalds in the street. If there are McDonalds here, it is because French people like to go to them. Anyway, there are probably more Chinese restaurants in France than McDonalds, but no one feels swamped by Chinese culture.

Q. You supported the Iraq war? Do you still?

A. We were in favor of the intervention for humanitarian reasons. Saddam Hussein was a tyrant and he was oppressing his people. Everyone in the world deserves freedom -- it's not just something for the West.

Q. So you share U.S. President George W. Bush's mission to spread freedom everywhere -- if necessary by military means?

A. You can pray that a dictator like Fidel Castro will step down, but it won't work. If you really want to free these people, you have no other means but intervention. Could the situation really be worse than it is today in North Korea, where you have a dictator starving his own people?

Q. Many of the icons of the French left are people like Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, who are hardly freedom-loving democrats. How do you feel about that?

A. There's a new film about Che Guevara ("Motorcycle Diaries"), which is just disgusting. To think that all these young people will watch that film and think Che Guevara was a young angel, when he was just a crazy guy who murdered so many people. It was the same at the Fête de l'Humanite (communist party festival) last week. There were people from North Korea, Cuba and all the world's worst dictatorships.

Q. You said in one interview that France was a communist country. Do you stand by that?

A. Maybe I was being provocative. France isn't communist -- it's just ruled too much by the state. More than 55 percent of GDP is in the hands of the state -- one of the highest in Europe. So it means that for half of the year, you don't work for yourself but for the authorities. In France we have all been brought up with the idea that the state is here to help us -- in a recent poll 75 percent of young people under 25 said their ambition was to be a civil servant -- so the idea of self-responsibility is not at the center of what we are taught.

Q. What's your impression of Jacques Chirac?

A. Oh my God, he's just a grandfather -- he's too old and he should retire. He was already prime minister before I was born, so how can you expect me to vote for someone older than my grandfather? His biggest problem is that he doesn't trust the individual -- like others on the left. It's the same problem with the entire political class -- they have all been to ENA (the elite finishing school for France's ruling class), they all have the same information and the same ideas. They are the old generation. Now have a new generation of people -- even in the National Assembly -- who are younger, who have worked in business and are more dynamic.

Q. The Daily Telegraph newspaper in Britain has described you as "France's answer to Margaret Thatcher." Are you flattered by such comparisons?

A. Yes, because I think she did a very, very good job in Britain. Even before coming to power, she had a clear idea of what she wanted to achieve and she stuck to those beliefs. In particular, she was brilliant with the unions. She forced the unions to bend by forcing them to publish their accounts, and that's absolutely what we need in France now.

Q. You are in favor of legalizing gay marriage and decriminalizing soft drug use. Does that lead to problems with the traditional, conservative right?

A. When you believe in individual freedom you have to be coherent. You can't say people should have the right to have their own income and then say people are too stupid to know who they want to marry. If you want individual freedom, you have to fight for it in all areas.