Dear Friends,

Today is a very special day, not only because the French football team is playing tonight the World Cup Final, but also because from every corner of the world, the great classical liberal family has gathered for this 25th freedom summit. And for us from Alternative Libérale, the French classical liberal political party, it is a great honor to be introduced to you. On behalf of about a thousand members who have already joined with our young party so far in France, I would like to address our special thanks to ISIL for their kind invitation and to Liberalni Institut for welcoming us so warmly and nicely. I would also like to thank you all for coming from Europe, Americas, Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific to attend this summit.

Freedom of speech, freedom of choice, free trade, free experience are values we all cherish; it is therefore highly important to join together. And this struggle for freedom must not only take place in countries suffering from dictatorship such as Russia, North Korea or Iran but also in our old democracies where such values tend to depreciate.

Today, as Secretary General and co-founding member of Alternative Libérale, it is a great pleasure to tell you about the new rise of classical liberalism in my country. First of all, I will introduce Alternative Libérale to you, then present our political approach and lastly say a few words about international cooperation.

Living in a system with poor political diversity prevents anybody from questioning it. Do you know how many French people still think their so-called social system is the best in the world? Do you know how many French people think they can think freely? What is more dangerous than a slave who does not know he is enslaved? For dinner, French people watching prime time TV news are still being served with old “clichés” such as British nationals crossing the Channel to get medical treatment in France, or libelous campaigns against “bad American capitalism”. When you realize how much money each year American business men bring into society! The world has changed but our politicians have not.

When you look back at French suburban riots last year, they were not a simple act of criminality but the only weapon that many rejected and vulnerable citizens were able to use to express their discontent. This is the result of many years of socialist policy led by right and left governments over the past decades. This is the result of a large number of ghettos set up after the Second World War and “massive subsidies” given to an increasing number of specific target groups in order to buy social peace. This "bury-your-head-in-the-sand" policy is bringing huge inequality now.

While living abroad for some time, I could open my eyes to different ways and make a cultural revolution inside me. Back in France, I joint in 2002 a growing organization called “Liberté Chérie” (word-for-word "beloved freedom") to build a new society. We have been known first for breaking union strikes in June 2003. This was the first public revelation of strong inequality in France and a visible sign for the failure in our social model. It was an alarming fact showing that people are no longer democratically represented in France.

Our objective was not only to demonstrate against a dying system. What is the point if you have nothing else to propose? We are proposing a new political vision of France. Alternative Libérale embodies this vision, an alternative to conservative and socialist parties. An alternative to a society based on fear, a society where we trust people.

And of course there are several challenges to take on: gathering classical liberal people who are usually divided by their views and definitions, packaging our philosophy and theories so that it can be appreciated widely by people and rewriting the way people consider liberalism because it was publicly left in our opponents' hands.

Could we continue being thrown mud at by our opponents without having any opportunity to express ourselves? Do you want our values to continue bearing all the sins of our modern society? Divided, we are put aside; we are responsible for poverty and atrocities. We are those who want to dominate the weakest, to take advantage of people’s misery for more profit. We are responsible for the bad aspects of globalization, relocations, social plans.

What so unfair a destiny! When you know that Classical Liberalism, in France, called upon the French Revolution before being taken over by bloody dictators such as Robespierre. At that time we wanted to end privileges and absolute rules. After more than 200 years, our work is not finished, in France as well as in many countries. As long as 1 human being on earth cannot live free, we are all concerned. That is “our vision of real socialism”.

Dear Friends, the time has come for our beloved values of freedom to leave library shelves and conquer people’s hearts. The time has come for new political leaders to represent our values truly.

Most countries have liberal parties that score significantly in polls and have political weigh in governments; we can quote the FDP in Germany or the Progressive Democrats in Ireland for instance. But France was left without any independent representation of our ideas.

Founding Alternative Libérale last March 2006 meant we could achieve our first objective consisting in gathering and sharing a global vision for France, not just limited to economic reforms but extending to all spheres of society such as education, housing, institutions, environment, foreign affairs, or unemployment. The most surprising during these 3 months of operation has been, on the one hand, the diverse origins of our supporters: suburban residents, French people originated from immigration, disheartened civil servants, young people, and SMB owners abandoned by the system. They are the people suffering daily from inequality generated by socialism.

On the other hand, our coverage in the media who are definitely looking for debates in this actual sterile and uniform way of thinking.

Do you know France is the only one democracy in the world which is not represented at Liberal International? Do you know France is the only one democracy in Europe with no representation at ELDR?

Dear Friends, there are many ways to defend our ideas, we have decided to go into politics. With one principle, when we are elected, we will not build new laws that take away fundamental responsibility from people but instead give them back their freedom of choice.

We will have a candidate at the next presidential election in 2007. We are already covering whole France with candidates for the parliamentary elections, and for all following polls.

In our campaign, as classical liberals, we cannot afford to avoid having positions. It is our duty as politicians to communicate, to package our message, to come up to people expectations, to create opportunities. In the end, we will be judged for what we have done or have not done.

We are organized to be close to real life and local issues. Voters are ready to trust you if your message is a concrete response to their problems: for example how to solve the transportation issue in Clichy-sous-bois, a town 20 km far away from Paris where it takes 2 hours using public transportation and many network connections to reach Paris? How to address traffic congestion? How to address energetic issues? Pollution? Insecurity? We cannot just simply answer with principles, we need actions. That is how we expect to achieve what in France, classical liberals have not been able to achieve in the past.

To that end, our policy consists in developing opportunities, removing fears in people’s hearts and rebuilding trust, which will be a lengthy process.

To that end, we also need powerful tools: the "universal safety net" is a key component of our policy. It will enable us to reduce benefits granted – often for political reasons – to very specific population groups drastically. It will help us eliminate resistance to change in our society. This social safety net shall encourage people to take risks. This net is a guaranteed sum of money given to all citizens, enabling them to live decently. This would open up a successful transition phase that will enable changes in labor law and tackle unemployment.

The old mechanisms of labor law do not match the expectations of modern-day French people any longer. The very nature of wage earners has changed: workers nowadays are seeking greater autonomy and freedom of choice in their way of living. We want to introduce a single employment contract, granting more freedom to negotiate the specifics of contracts between each employer and each employee. We also stand for the abolition of the separate status given to people working in the public sector. With Alternative Libérale, new civil servants will be employed based on private work contracts and have the same rights and obligations as all other wage earners.

About taxes, the current tax system is unfair and harms growth in our country. It is unevenly distributed and hampers work, proving to be a burden on productive investment. We recommend lower tax levels and a better distribution of taxes over French citizens. Furthermore, we believe that everyone should pay a minimum level of tax, reflecting their part in life in general.

Then we want appropriate democratic structures to represent people. Our hybrid system subordinates Parliament to the French President. The Parliament does not have enough power over the budget and does not even have control over its own agenda. We favor the establishment of a Presidential system that truly separates the powers of the Parliament and the Executive, creating a “check-and-balance” system in our democracy. We also stand for electoral reforms. We want all different political opinions to be represented in Parliament by introducing a proportional system similar to that in Germany.

Talking of the level of corruption in our country, this is simply unbelievable. Even at the heart of the State and in major companies, corruption has not been eradicated – far from it. Refusing to deal with this peculiar French corruption creates collusion between the public sector and private interests. In order to restore the trust of shareholders and employees in their companies, in order to restore the faith of French voters in their elected representatives, in the name of democracy, we demand the implementation of new national, European and international measures to combat corruption.

We also want to guarantee diversity in our educational system as a principle. We would move forward with real decentralization of schools, giving them the freedom of self-governance and enabling them to compete against each other in order to promote diversity and quality. We firmly believe that school catchment areas (the so-called school map) lead to unfairness in our education system, allowing only children from wealthy families to access the best schools.

As regards individual civil liberties, we want to guarantee individual rights against arbitrary State power. Defending our civil liberties cannot be done at the expense of our fundamental rights, which can only lead to the risk that our own societies resemble those that currently spread terror among their own and other people. We are strongly opposed to any form of affirmative action, which, we believe, is prejudicial to civil liberties.

Switching to housing, our definition of social housing is accommodation that could one day be bought with a person's own savings. We favor greater ownership potential for tenants currently living in social housing.

Concerning Europe, the real victories are not economic, but rather political: freedom of movement, right of appeal with higher European courts for people suffering from power abuse by the States, battles won against totalitarianism and the establishment of a lasting peace, restored freedom for Eastern Europe and a rebuilt, united Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall. We advocate a federal Europe with a delegation of responsibilities among the federation, states and regions.

And then at international level, current French foreign policy is unacceptable. Collusion with many dictators throughout the world has to be stopped. We favor a foreign policy that is fully consistent with the defense of civil liberties – just as the motto of our country would indicate. We want to provide active support to democratic movements. We would seek an alliance of democracies to defend civil liberties across the globe.

We want to enter a positive globalization process, get rid of protectionism, which prevents our country from developing, stop dramatizing business relocations and create favorable domestic economic conditions instead, as well as consider immigration in a different manner than as an "invasion of foreigners".

To succeed one day, this revolutionary approach in France strongly needs help from the international community; we need help from anyone who shares our values.

We predict a tremendous breakthrough for our classical liberal party. The French current economic and political background speaks in our favor. This is a unique chance that we can only convert into a success with your help.

Today we are laying the foundation stone of classical liberalism in France. In 2007, we will be able to measure the first results of our strategy.

Now within our classical liberal family, it is highly important to share our best practices. It is highly important to intensify our relationships and understand how we can successfully spread our values.

The strength of our opponents is their ability to be unified; our weakness is the difficulty we may have to make compromises. But in every project, there are milestones to reach in order to pave the way for success.

Les pays d'Europe de l'Est ont vécu la dureté d'un régime communiste, subissant de plein fouet une idéologie s'arrogeant la palme de l'humaniste.

On a vu le résultat. Avec un Etat pensant diriger le bonheur des gens depuis Moscou, en planifiant aussi bien les richesses, la pauvreté que la corruption, les pays d'Europe de l'est ont été pendant longtemps privés de leur liberté de choix et d'expression; valeurs fondamentales pour l'émancipation de l'individu dans une société.

Chez les libéraux, nous n'avons pas la prétention de connaître la vérité et de l'imposer aux autres, nous pensons qu'un système politique doit laisser un maximum de liberté pour que les citoyens puissent réaliser leurs souhaits tout en protégeant les plus faibles de manière universelle et sans discrimination. Car on peut être très fort un jour et se retrouver dans la détresse le lendemain, personne n'est à l'abri d'un accident de parcours et la société doit offrir une chance de rebondir de manière inconditionnelle. Et sans tomber dans le travers qui consisterait à financer la précarité !

Lorsque je regarde la situation dans les pays d'Europe de l'Est, je suis content de voir qu'après ces années de privation, nos compatriotes Européens donnent le pas en Europe vers une société libérale authentique. Les élections polonaises sont remarquables, le 9 octobre dernier, Donald Tusk du parti libéral arrivait en tête du premier tour des présidentielles avec 35.82% des suffrages et faisait ensuite plier aux élections municipales ses opposants. Donald Tusk est un partisan d'un impôt à taux unique pour les revenus et les entreprises (déjà pratiqué en Slovaquie à 19% et proposé par Alternative Libérale à environ 18%) et d'une politique internationale d'alliance forte entre les démocraties. Aujourd'hui la croissance en Pologne est fulgurante, une amie polonaise me disait à quel point son pays s'était amélioré depuis l'époque soviétique.

En Roumanie qui devrait intégrer l'UE en Janvier 2007, c'est Popescu Tariceanu (vice président de l'ELDR) qui mène la barque en tant que premier ministre.

Passer d'un système ultra collectiviste et planifié vers une société libérale est possible, ça a même du bon ! A l'Est ils s'en lèchent les babines, à nous français de reprendre le pouvoir sur nos politiques. Ne les laissons pas, choisir à notre place !

Aujourd'hui, au sein d'Alternative Libérale, je m'occupe du projet de rapprochement avec les partis politiques libéraux en Europe notamment l'ELDR (groupement de partis libéraux Européens). La France est le seul pays d'Europe qui n'a pas de représentation libérale. Il est indispensable que nous rejoignons nos compagnons Européens pour construire ensemble une vraie Europe des libertés. Après l'échec de la constitution, principalement parce qu'elle n'était pas lisible pour nos concitoyens, c'est au libéraux d'être force de propositions !

L.L.

Muhammad Yunus, prix Nobel de la paix 2006 est un économiste et entrepreneur. Il a fondé, il y a environ 30 ans, la Grameen Bank, la première institution de micro crédit.

Le micro crédit consiste à l'attribution de prêts de faible montant à des artisans ou des entrepreneurs qui ne peuvent pas accéder aux prêts bancaires classiques. Je regardais un reportage qui interviewait une femme d'un village du Bangladesh qui avait emprunté 15 euros, cela lui a permis de monter une fabrique de textile et d'embaucher 15 personnes. Elle a pu ainsi aider toute sa famille. Le mécanisme financier et assez simple est fait appel à la responsabilité de chaque emprunteur vis à vis de la collectivité.

Aujourd'hui la Grameen Bank a accordé à peu près 3 milliards d'euros de crédit à plus de 2 millions d'emprunteurs au Bangladesh.

Les détracteurs du micro crédit y opposent principalement des taux élevés
 (environ 20%, pour comparaison les organismes de crédit à la consommation sont à environ 16% en France) ainsi qu'un détournement des actions humanitaires. Sur ce dernier point, je trouve particulièrement encourageant que les gens des pays les plus pauvres puissent s'organiser eux-mêmes pour sortir de leur pauvreté. Le micro-crédit est aussi une aubaine pour beaucoup de femmes pour leur émancipation dans la société (pour la Grameen Bank, 97% des micro-crédits sont pour des femmes).

Je vous invite à consulter le blog de Claude Guillemain représentant d'Alternative Libérale au Mozambique et spécialiste de micro-crédit.

Au-delà du prix Nobel, Muhammad Yunus illustre que dans une situation difficile (lorsqu'on connaît le taux de pauvreté du Bangladesh) quand les gens ont le droit de s'organiser entre eux, ils trouvent des solutions pour dépasser leurs problèmes. C'est un bel exemple libéral qui est récompensé par un prix nobel.

Ce principe pourrait être appliqué à d'autre aspect de la société comme pour la sécurité ou la justice en créant des micro-assemblées, voir mon article précédent sur la médiation.

Aujourd'hui nous nous en remettons pour tout à l'Etat providence qui est bien incapable de répondre aux attentes, libéraux nous prônons une société de confiance où les initiatives sont enfin libérées.

L.L.