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A state visit gives France’s president a chance to improve his count
THIRTY years ago a French Socialist president flew to Silicon Valley to see the future. Coming from the country that invented the Minitel, François Mitterrand was a credible techno-enthusiast, and he was inspired by meeting a 29-year-old Valley entrepreneur called Steve Jobs. Next week another French Socialist president will drop in on the Valley as part of a three-day state visit to America. But François Hollande will come with a less tech-friendly image—and a need to persuade Americans that France is not about the past.
This is the first state visit to America by a French president since 1996. Mr Hollande will get full honours, including a black-tie White House dinner and a trip with Barack Obama on Air Force One. In many ways, the visit is well timed. France is not just America’s oldest ally. Mr Hollande also has a claim to be America’s most hawkish European friend, when there is concern over American disengagement. Since his election in 2012 he has sent French troops into Mali to push back an incursion by Islamists tied to al-Qaeda, and more recently into the Central African Republic to halt “pre-genocidal” warfare there.
In the Middle East, France has also shown surprising steeliness. Last August Mr Hollande vowed to “punish” the Syrian regime for its chemical-weapons attacks, and lined up fighter jets ready for retaliatory air strikes—until Mr Obama put everything on hold by seeking approval from Congress. In nuclear talks with Iran, Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, held up the deal to press for tougher guarantees. The French insist they are not out to rival Britain for America’s affection—this is “not a beauty contest”, says one aide. Indeed, they were furious to be left dangling by the Americans over strikes on Syria. Yet in many ways it suits America to have a fellow permanent member of the UN Security Council talking tough in the region.
On the Washington leg of his trip, Mr Hollande and Mr Obama have trickier matters to discuss, notably French concerns over the protection of private data and the tax status of big American firms such as Google. Yet Mr Hollande’s stickiest moment will probably come in Silicon Valley. When Mitterrand met Jobs, he had turned the page on nationalisation, embracing private enterprise and “computing for all”. Mr Hollande has just announced his own U-turn, promising a more business-friendly approach, with lower payroll taxes and reduced public spending. But this has yet to be put into practice. Morale among American investors in France reached a new low in 2013, according to a poll. And Mr Hollande still has the reputation, as one French businessman with transatlantic dealings says, as “the one who brought in the 75% millionaire’s tax”.
Hence Mr Hollande’s hope to present another face of France: innovative, technologically adept and open for business. He is taking with him a handful of French entrepreneurs from such firms as BlaBlaCar, a car-sharing site that transports more people each month than Eurostar, or Carmat, which invented the first artificial heart, transplanted into a human in France last year. Also on the trip is Fleur Pellerin, his digital-economy minister, a dynamic advocate for French start-ups who has pestered Mr Hollande to pay more attention to entrepreneurs and promote what she calls “La French Tech”. Mr Hollande’s heavy-handed treatment of entrepreneurs has softened. He back-pedalled from an early plan to raise capital-gains tax on start-ups after a mass online protest by entrepreneurs calling themselves “les pigeons”.
Even so, it will be a hard sell, and not only because of concerns about taxes. The French have a lingering ambivalence about disruptive technology, especially if it touches culture or threatens home-grown incumbents. Last year Arnaud Montebourg, the industry minister and Ms Pellerin’s ministerial superior, rejected out of hand the idea that Yahoo might buy 75% of Dailymotion, a French online video-sharing site (Mr Montebourg is also on the American trip). More recently, a taxi strike turned violent when Uber, a mobile-app taxi service, set up business in Paris, where curb-side taxis are scarce. This was despite a now-thwarted effort to impose a compulsory 15-minute waiting time on all drivers to protect the city’s licensed taxis.
In 1984 Mitterrand was so inspired by Jobs that his government promised a microcomputer in every French school. Apple computers were an option; there was even talk of Jobs building a factory in France. But, in the end, the government went with a home-grown manufacturer. The rest is history.
France and America: Mr Hollande goes to Washington | The Economist
THIRTY years ago a French Socialist president flew to Silicon Valley to see the future. Coming from the country that invented the Minitel, François Mitterrand was a credible techno-enthusiast, and he was inspired by meeting a 29-year-old Valley entrepreneur called Steve Jobs. Next week another French Socialist president will drop in on the Valley as part of a three-day state visit to America. But François Hollande will come with a less tech-friendly image—and a need to persuade Americans that France is not about the past.
This is the first state visit to America by a French president since 1996. Mr Hollande will get full honours, including a black-tie White House dinner and a trip with Barack Obama on Air Force One. In many ways, the visit is well timed. France is not just America’s oldest ally. Mr Hollande also has a claim to be America’s most hawkish European friend, when there is concern over American disengagement. Since his election in 2012 he has sent French troops into Mali to push back an incursion by Islamists tied to al-Qaeda, and more recently into the Central African Republic to halt “pre-genocidal” warfare there.
In the Middle East, France has also shown surprising steeliness. Last August Mr Hollande vowed to “punish” the Syrian regime for its chemical-weapons attacks, and lined up fighter jets ready for retaliatory air strikes—until Mr Obama put everything on hold by seeking approval from Congress. In nuclear talks with Iran, Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, held up the deal to press for tougher guarantees. The French insist they are not out to rival Britain for America’s affection—this is “not a beauty contest”, says one aide. Indeed, they were furious to be left dangling by the Americans over strikes on Syria. Yet in many ways it suits America to have a fellow permanent member of the UN Security Council talking tough in the region.
On the Washington leg of his trip, Mr Hollande and Mr Obama have trickier matters to discuss, notably French concerns over the protection of private data and the tax status of big American firms such as Google. Yet Mr Hollande’s stickiest moment will probably come in Silicon Valley. When Mitterrand met Jobs, he had turned the page on nationalisation, embracing private enterprise and “computing for all”. Mr Hollande has just announced his own U-turn, promising a more business-friendly approach, with lower payroll taxes and reduced public spending. But this has yet to be put into practice. Morale among American investors in France reached a new low in 2013, according to a poll. And Mr Hollande still has the reputation, as one French businessman with transatlantic dealings says, as “the one who brought in the 75% millionaire’s tax”.
Hence Mr Hollande’s hope to present another face of France: innovative, technologically adept and open for business. He is taking with him a handful of French entrepreneurs from such firms as BlaBlaCar, a car-sharing site that transports more people each month than Eurostar, or Carmat, which invented the first artificial heart, transplanted into a human in France last year. Also on the trip is Fleur Pellerin, his digital-economy minister, a dynamic advocate for French start-ups who has pestered Mr Hollande to pay more attention to entrepreneurs and promote what she calls “La French Tech”. Mr Hollande’s heavy-handed treatment of entrepreneurs has softened. He back-pedalled from an early plan to raise capital-gains tax on start-ups after a mass online protest by entrepreneurs calling themselves “les pigeons”.
Even so, it will be a hard sell, and not only because of concerns about taxes. The French have a lingering ambivalence about disruptive technology, especially if it touches culture or threatens home-grown incumbents. Last year Arnaud Montebourg, the industry minister and Ms Pellerin’s ministerial superior, rejected out of hand the idea that Yahoo might buy 75% of Dailymotion, a French online video-sharing site (Mr Montebourg is also on the American trip). More recently, a taxi strike turned violent when Uber, a mobile-app taxi service, set up business in Paris, where curb-side taxis are scarce. This was despite a now-thwarted effort to impose a compulsory 15-minute waiting time on all drivers to protect the city’s licensed taxis.
In 1984 Mitterrand was so inspired by Jobs that his government promised a microcomputer in every French school. Apple computers were an option; there was even talk of Jobs building a factory in France. But, in the end, the government went with a home-grown manufacturer. The rest is history.
France and America: Mr Hollande goes to Washington | The Economist
