....© 2000, Kimit A. Muston
I think it is amazing the number of times that France has been guided through a crises by a woman, despite never being ruled by a queen nor having elected a woman to a position of supreme power. Joan of Arc, Marie Antoinette and Charlotte Corday; each gave French history a push, each in her own unique way without actually holding the reins of power. And it could be happening again.
France has just dropped into fifth place as an economic power behind England and is suffering the largest cross channel migration of wealth since Robespierre started cutting off royal heads. Perhaps 250,000 men and women have abandoned La belle France in the last decade and taken up residence in England, among them singer Charles Aznavour and racing driver Alain Prost.
But worst of all for the French self image, "Marianne" herself, the very physical symbol of France, a sort of sexy Uncle Sam, whose lovely face adorns 36,000 town halls and businesses from Verdun to Toulon, is now living in Covent Garden.
Gleefully unmasked by the English press the 21 year old Laeitia Casta, the model picked to be the new "Marianne", insisted that she was only renting in London while she looked for a house to buy; in Corsica. Her explanation was so silly that Brigitte Bardot, the previous Marianne, ignored it completely when she announced, "She's right! I'd join her if I was younger!" Who ever thought sex kitten Brigitte Bardot would grow up to be a cranky old lady?
The reason the yong pouty lipped, razor thin waif of a super model has abandoned her homeland is that in France Mil. Casta faces an income tax rate of 54% - plus a 24% social security charge and something called a wealth levy, assuming she has any wealth left to place a levy upon. Those taxes might have left the poor child with no money for food except that, being a super model, every pound she loses increases her modeling fee by several thousand dollars. She already makes between three and four million dollars a year. (Should she actually starve to death, presumably no one could afford to photograph her.)
The Brits are delighted, of course, crediting their version of capitalism (called Blairism, after P.M. Tony Blair) with snatching this Helen from her Paris. The English are capitalists with all the fervor of recent converts. This is the same nation that invented the public dole and socialized medicine, but that is all forgotten in the rush to revel in the humiliation of their neighbors across the Chunnel. They describe the French tax system as fiscal harassment, taunt the "Socialists Paradise" across the waves and have even begun to boast about the quality of French restaurants in London.
The Gaelic reaction to this goading has been, to put it mildly, apoplectic. The idea that a bunch of roast beef eaters and beer drinkers have seduced the beauty of France does not harmonize with the supreme level of French self confidence. Interior Minister Jean-Pierre Chevenment has warned "Marianne" that what she may save in taxes she will lose by paying more in rent, in lost health care, undependable pensions and (gasp!) lost time on the lousy London metro rail system. There have been magazine articles recounting horror stories of greedy English landlords and outrageously expensive meals in London restaurants.
But none of the French attacks seem to be having an impact where it really counts. Over the last five years perhaps as many as 150,000 French entrepreneurs have slipped across the channel, many taking their businesses with them, and leaving a sort of Alice in Wonderland political crises behind.
In the midst of a good time economy with a growth rate approaching 3% and unemployment threatening to fall below ten percent for the first time in decades, the government of premier Lionel Jospin has been desperately trying to keep the wraps over a huge budget surpluse. What would be grounds for a celebration and a parade in almost any other nation is an embarrassment of riches for French socialists.
When word of the bulging state coffers did slip out the Gaulists opposition party immediately called for tax cuts, which brought a schizophrenic response from Premier Jospin. He announced a new effort to "curb the excesses of capitalism" and imposed a new tax upon those who take their firms out of the country. But at the same time he has pledged to cut the tax rate over the next two years for the middle and upper income brackets back to it's 1995 levels, just in time for the next elections.
But will the French public accept such despised "Anglo-Saxon" economic policies such as tax cuts? There was recently a nation-wide teachers walk out because Jospin's government merely suggested it wanted to cut the size of the education ministry, (referred to in France as "THE MAMMOTH"). Pensions for the huge civil service, whose members can retire with full benefits at the age of 55, help taxes to gobble up 45.3% of the country's G.N.P. And no one has indicated a willingness to sacrifice part of their pensions for the good of the nation.
But all that is in the abstract. The visible is the lovely "Marianne" having abandoned the land of Voltaire, Edith Piath and Jerry Lewis for the land of Benny Hill and Prince Charles. The insult to French pride could be unendurable.
All of France awaits further comment from a 21 year old rich skinny woman. And if she chooses the correct words she might bring about sweeping economic change in the land of wine bureaucrats. It is expected that the young Ml. Casta will hold a press conference as soon as she returns from shooting a Victoria Secret ad in Los Angeles. All of France holds it's breath. Again.
Mr. Muston is a writer living in North Hollywood. His work may Also be seen in the Los Angeles Daily News and the Los Angeles Times.
Kimit Muston is a writer living in North Hollywood. His other work may be read in the Los Angeles Daily News.