希拉克回忆录——法国右翼政治入门

In politics, only physical death counts, otherwise resurrection is always possible, Alain Juppé, the Gaullist politician, observed last week. He was speaking of France’s main opposition UMP party, which he described as “moribund, not dead after a bitterly disputed leadership contest that threatens to split the centre-right group he once led.

戴高乐主义政治家阿兰·朱佩(Alain Juppé)上周说：“在政界，除非肉体死亡，否则总有可能卷土重来。他指的是法国主要反对党人民运动联盟(UMP)。在经历了一场激烈的领导权争夺以后，他称之为“濒死但未亡。这场争夺险些导致这个他曾领导的政党分崩离析。

But he could as easily have been referring to the career of his mentor Jacques Chirac, the former president who ranks among the great survivors of French politics. It was Chirac who founded the UMP in 2002, in an attempt to end decades of fratricidal divisions in the French centre-right – which he himself had proved expert in exploiting during his rise to the presidency. Anyone seeking to understand the current mess could turn to this new English translation of Chirac’s memoirs as a primer.

但他也可能指的是他的政治生涯导师、法国前总统雅克·希拉克(Jacques Chirac)。在法国政坛现存伟大的政治家中，希拉克位列其中。在2002年建立UMP的正是希拉克，此举试图结束法国中右翼长达数十年自相残杀式的分裂，而希拉克自身的经历证明，他擅长利用这些争斗一步步问鼎总统宝座。任何想要搞清楚当前混乱状况的人，都可以把希拉克的最新英译版回忆录当作入门读物。

My Life in Politics, assembled from interviews by a friendly biographer, spans four decades in high office. Beginning with his stint as employment minister under Georges Pompidou, when Chirac says he dissuaded unions from joining the 1968 student protests, the book ends with his second term as president, during which he won notoriety in the US and acclaim at home for opposing the Iraq war.

一位传记作者友人整理了对希拉克的访谈，写成了《我的政治生涯》(My Life in Politics)一书，记述了希拉克担任要职的40年经历。该书从希拉克在乔治·蓬皮杜(Georges Pompidou)手下担任就业国务秘书开始，希拉克说，当时他劝阻了工会参加1968年的学生抗议活动。本书终于希拉克第二次担任法国总统，在第二任期内他因反对伊拉克战争而遭美国深恶痛绝，不过在国内饱受赞誉。

In the intervening years, he spent much time governing, whether as prime minister or president, in tandem with opponents from the left or rivals of similar convictions. Of the two, the governments of cohabitation seem to have been easier. Chirac struggled to pass economic reforms as prime minister under the Socialist presidency of Fran ois Mitterrand, but the experience taught him the “vices and virtues, subtle games and advantageous constraints of such arrangements. Such was their rapport that when Chirac succeeded him in the Elysée, Mitterand put the furniture back as Charles de Gaulle had had it as a welcome gesture.

在这40年中，不管是担任总理还是总统，在大多数时间里，希拉克要么与左翼、要么与信仰相仿的竞争对手一起治理法国。在这二者中，与不同阵营构建的共存政府看上去更加容易驾驭一些。希拉克在社会党总统弗朗索瓦·密特朗(Fran ois Mitterrand)任职期间担任法国总理时，艰难推动经济改革的通过，这段经历让他领教了这种安排的“优缺点、微妙博弈与有利制约。当希拉克接任密特朗入住爱丽舍宫时，密特朗把家具摆回原位，就像当初夏尔·戴高乐(Charles de Gaulle)的摆设一样，展示了对希拉克的欢迎姿态，这就是二人的友好关系。

In contrast, relations with rivals of the same political family were often fraught. Of most relevance to the current internecine struggle in the UMP are Chirac’s accounts of his long feuds with the centrist president, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing; his later struggles with Edouard Balladur; and his handling of the rise of the far-right National Front.

相比之下，希拉克与同一阵营的竞争对手之间的关系总是矛盾重重。按照希拉克的叙述，与如今UMP两败俱伤的斗争关联最大的，是他与中间派总统瓦莱里·吉斯卡尔·德斯坦(Valéry Giscard d'Estaing)之间的长期不和；后来与爱德华·巴拉迪尔(Edouard Balladur)之间的斗争；以及他对极右翼国民阵线(National Front)崛起的处理。

Giscard is described as “exceptionally intelligent?.?.?.?but with an obvious propensity to accord little importance to others. Balladur is a “cold calculator who?.?.?.?made no secret of the fact that he felt superior to all those who surrounded me.

希拉克描述吉斯卡尔“睿智过人，但明显喜欢轻视别人。巴拉迪尔是台“冷酷的计算器，毫不掩饰地认为自己比我身边的人优越。

Such animosity had lasting results. After a brief and difficult stint serving as prime minister under Giscard, Chirac founded the Gaullist RPR party and drained support from the president’s UDF. He ran first against a Giscardian candidate to become mayor of Paris then, in 1981, against Giscard himself in the presidential election, splitting the centre-right vote to Mitterrand’s advantage.

这样的敌意产生了长期后果。在吉斯卡尔执政时，希拉克担任法国总理，这段任期很短暂，充满艰辛。随后希拉克创建了戴高乐主义的保卫共和联盟(RPR)，吸引走了人们对总统的法兰西民主联盟(UDF)的支持。他先是与吉斯卡尔一派的候选人竞争，当上了巴黎市长，然后在1981年直接与吉斯卡尔在总统大选中竞争，分走了一部分中右翼的选票，让密特朗捡了便宜。

Chirac was branded a manipulative traitor for such manoeuvres. He, in turn, never forgave Balladur, a former protégé, for running against him in the 1995 presidential election – or another, Nicolas Sarkozy, for backing Balladur in that campaign.

在此类行动中，希拉克被指责为老谋深算的叛徒。反过来，他从未原谅他曾经的门徒巴拉迪尔，因为后者在1995年的总统竞选中与他竞争，也从未原谅另一位门徒尼古拉·萨科齐(Nicolas Sarkozy)，因为萨科齐在那次总统竞选中支持巴拉迪尔。

Today’s schisms of the right appear driven as much by personal ambition or antipathy as by ideology. But this theory is complicated by the fact that the UMP is an uneasy mix of political traditions – Gaullist, centrist, liberal and a harder, more populist right wing. Sarkozy’s leadership dynamised this coalition but did little to clarify its thinking.

今天右翼的分裂似乎既是源于个人野心或者个人仇隙，也是源于意识形态。不过让这一理论变得复杂的是，UMP令人不安地混合了各种政治传统——戴高乐主义者、中间派人士、自由派和一股更为强硬、更加民粹化的右翼。萨科齐的领导为这个联盟注入了活力，但一点也没有澄清其思想。

Here too, Chirac’s experience sheds light. Never a rightwing ideologue, he consistently refused any accommodation with the party founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen. The former president never lived down a crass comment about the “noise and smell of immigrants but, far from xenophobia, he displays a sincere admiration of the Arab world and other civilisations. And in a book heavy on self-justification, his one explicit regret is failing to form a government of national unity after Le Pen’s advance to the second round of the 2002 election.

在这一点上，希拉克的经历也使问题更加清楚。希拉克从来不是右翼理论家，他坚决拒绝与让-玛丽·勒庞(Jean-Marie Le Pen)创建的党派和解。这位前总统曾就移民的“噪音和味道发表过一番愚蠢的言论，并且从未洗刷掉这段污点。不过他绝不排外，反而真心地欣赏阿拉伯世界和其他文明。在这本充满自我辩解的书中，希拉克明确表示，他的一个遗憾是在勒庞进入2002年第二轮选举之后，未能组建一个民族团结的政府。

Chirac turned 80 last month and reportedly has little interest in the travails of his party. But even in a retirement tainted by old funding scandals, he consistently tops polls as France’s most popular political figure.

上个月，希拉克年满80岁，据称他对其政党中的苦差事兴致缺缺。即便在退休后因过去的贪腐丑闻名誉受损，希拉克在民调中始终是法国最具人气的政治人物。

The UMP might do well to reflect on the qualities that gave him such broad appeal. Affable and at ease with his constituents, he was always able to conform to voters’ ideas of how a president should behave – whether tucking into a regional delicacy on the campaign trail or upholding French values in grandiose fashion on the world stage.

UMP可能需要认真思考那些赋予他如此广泛吸引力的品质。希拉克面对选民总是和蔼可亲，平易近人，始终能够符合选民心目中一位总统应该如何表现的设想——不管是在竞选活动中尽情大吃地方佳肴，还是在世界舞台上以恢宏的方式维持法国价值观。

Despite his Machiavellian talents, he subscribed to a Gaullist vision of France’s “destiny and place in the world?.?.?.?rooted in an intimate and detailed knowledge of its local idiosyncrasies.

尽管他精通权谋，为达目的不择手段，但希拉克赞成戴高乐关于法国的愿景：法国“在全世界的命运和地位，根源于其对本国特质的极致了解。

His successors should take note.

他的继任者应该注意这一点。

The writer is deputy comment editor

本文作者是副评论编辑