François Mitterrand’s former minister and former president of the Constitutional Council shares his vision of France with Sihem Souid. Interview.
Sihem Souid: What do you think of the foreign policy pursued by François Hollande since his election?
Roland Dumas: General de Gaulle was determined that France should be independent. Pompidou, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing (VGE) and Mitterrand followed that line of conduct, which satisfied everyone: saying yes with reservations, but not joining NATO’s integrated command. Under Chirac, talks took place about reintegration, but the counterparts he wanted were not accepted (command of the southern zone — the Mediterranean). Sarkozy announced that France was rejoining NATO’s integrated command. With François Hollande’s arrival in power, foreign policy endorsed this change of course with little internal debate and no public debate, by permanently rejoining NATO’s integrated command, and without any real counterpart. In reality, today those who give the orders are the United States and Israel. Today we are in an alliance in which France no longer has a say. We no longer have an independent foreign policy.
How do you view the work carried out by Laurent Fabius at the Quai d’Orsay?
He was my Prime Minister, so I cannot speak ill of him (smiles). You know the English proverb “right or wrong, my country is my country”. He was a very good Prime Minister, but he is a less good Foreign Minister because he does not advance the ideas I have just set out, which are France’s traditional ideas. France has lost its independence in foreign policy!
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Sihem Souid