Nullpartisystemet: En innsidebeskrivelse

Rett etter å ha skrevet mitt forrige innlegg i denne serien, leser jeg i The Economist’s Charlemagneblogg. Her beskriver en innsider – en slugger i det franske sosialistpartiet – hvordan oppnevnelsen av partiets lister til Europaparlamentet fungerer:

So when your correspondent, along with some French reporters present, asked some sceptical questions about the French Socialist campaign, I was expecting a robust defence, or even a spark of irritation. Not a bit of it. Rather disarmingly, no matter how many rude things we found to say about the French Euro-campaign, Mrs Guigou sighed, and said she could not really disagree.

One colleague taxed her about the way that the French Socialist party had drawn up its election lists for the European Parliament. As has been said on this blog before, the selection was pretty much based on the need to offer something to each major political faction in the party, rather than merit. Hard-working MEPs have been brutally evicted from winnable spots on the lists, in favour of placemen and women with powerful mentors.

Look, sighed Mrs Guigou. The problem we have is we make the lists on the basis of party factions, because the most important thing for us is to keep the party together. Even those involved in the process are «not exactly wild about it», she added.

The Socialist candidate lists «at least have the merit of existing», she went on: the ruling UMP of Nicolas Sarkozy has conspicuously failed to draw up its candidate lists, because they want to delay the start of the European election campaigns as long as possible. It is not as if the UMP lists will take long to draw up, she added, everyone knows they will be decided in the president’s offices at the Elysée–-and that Mr Sarkozy will use the European Parliament lists as a chance to exile those who have fallen out of his favour, «like sending them to the saltmines».

Og hvis noen så mye som forsøker seg på å hevde at dette bare skjer i Europaparlamentet…