Paul from Paris

Long considered a great place to work and much admired in business, Arthur Andersen became a target for criticism in the wake of the implosion and scandal of Enron (also considered a great place to work and, in its heyday, much admired in business).

Arthur Andersen was criticized mostly for how its different parts worked as a whole. In addition to auditing, Arthur Andersen sold accounting services and consulted on many business questions. According to critics, an entity that sold advisory services could not be counted on to audit impartially the recipient of its own advice, especially as consulting was more profitable than auditing.

An alumnus of Arthur Andersen has been in the news in France.

Eric Woerth is mayor of Chantilly (a town north of France famous for its stables and horse racing), MP from the 4th district of the Oise, French conservative party treasurer, former budget minister, and current labor minister.

Eric Woerth is also the husband of Florence Woerth, a financial analyst. The details are contested, but according to press reports Eric Woerth orchestrated a meeting between Florence Woerth and money manager Patrice de Maistre. In any case, Florence Woerth soon got a job and Patrice de Maistre soon got a decoration.

Florence Woerth joined Clymène, a money management firm run by Patrice de Maistre that has two unusual features: its sole shareholder and sole client is Liliane Bettencourt, an heiress to the L’Oréal fortune; and it consistently loses money, having suffered losses of more than €100 million from 2000 through 2008.

Patrice de Maistre was inducted into the French Legion of Honor, and received a decoration directly from Eric Woerth. According to press reports, the ceremony to present the decoration had been scheduled originally for November 2007, when Florence Woerth joined Clymène, then was moved to January 2008.

Earlier this summer, there was much talk about conflict of interest.

For former finance minister and free-market conservative Alain Madelin, “This is a situation of conflict of interest, incompatible with the office”.

Eric Woerth contested the point. But he also started talking about a “Chinese Wall”, borrowing a term that investment banks use to describe how they practice underwriting and trading under the same roof. And as this metaphor makes plain, even if the Woerths never talk about their work, they do share a household, supporting one another financially.

Florence Woerth resigned from Clymène, which seemed to undercut her husband’s denial of any problem.

French young conservatives (jeunes populaires) produced and posted on their site a video that showcases their late-summer congress, with leading figures from the Sarkozy government in attendance.

I like the video. It answers the question: how can you be young and conservative without being complacent? It’s also sufficiently unpolished to be the work of real young people, not an advertising agency.

To begin with, the young don’t call themselves “conservative”; they’re “popular”, in keeping with Sarkozy’s big-tent vision of the conservative party as the leading party and the party of good government.

The young conservatives also look to the future, reprising a 1976 song by Canadian artist Luc Plamondon, “Tous ceux qui veulent changer le monde” (Everyone who wants to change the world). They’re young and fresh and hopeful; they want change.

Most of all, the young conservatives have a sense of humor. They’re a bit silly, and their friends in the Sarkozy government are comfortable being a little silly themselves. These young people get along with their elders, who actually seem to enjoy their company. The ambiance recalls, for me, a big family get-together or a church picnic (but not a company picnic: these people are confident and comfortable enough not to take themselves too seriously).

The video has sparked reactions.

Those on the left, for whom “young conservatives” are an oxymoron or heresy, have enjoyed a laugh and produced parody videos. By a casual count, there seem to be at least a hundred, possibly several hundred, parodies.

Some of those on the right are scandalized, put off by a lack of seriousness or an overabundance of fooling-around. The standard-bearer of the scandalized conservatives is former education minister Luc Ferry, who in an interview –apparently after seeing excerpts of the video for the first time– described the video as “dripping with drivel” and wondered aloud about the dangers it presented for the future of civilization.

In France, debate always goes on, and elections are always around the corner.

Regional elections are coming up in 2010, and president Sarkozy has incited debate on French “national identity”. This torch burns hot and has been passed repeatedly among conservative hands.

Former minister for immigration and national identity, Brice Hortefeux, got into trouble when he made off-color remarks about a young man, apparently of Arab descent, at a conservative party youth event. Hortefeux today heads up the interior ministry.

The current minister for immigration and national identity, Eric Besson, courts controversy with zeal. For many years a labor party leader, Besson was humiliated and pushed aside by Ségolène Royal during her presidential campaign. Besson switched sides and joined Sarkozy’s government. For the left, he’s a turncoat, and he’s denounced or decried whenever he speaks. A weekly news magazine branded him “the most hated man in France”.

The junior minister for family affairs, Nadine Morano, caused a stir when she spoke this week in Charmes, a town in the Vosges best known as the birthplace of nationalist, anti-Dreyfusard, “chief of the brainwashers”, Maurice Barrès. When asked what she “wanted” from a “young Muslim”, Morano replied: “for him to love France when he lives in this country”. Hardly controversial words. Then Morano added that she wanted this hypothetical young person also to “find work”, “not speak in slang”, and “not wear his baseball cap backwards”. As with Hortefeux, the words aren’t facially anti-Muslim, but are heavily weighted down with nasty stereotypes. And as with Hortefeux, Morano claims to have been misquoted or misunderstood.

Sarkozy’s bet seems to have been to pick up some votes from potential National Front protest voters, and to consolidate the conservative party as the majority party. I read his preoccupation with “national identity” much like efforts in the USA to ban flag-burning. But the debate continues to make the Sarkozy team look like bumblers: time after time, seemingly reasonable, smart people make comments that are beyond the limits of polite discourse in France today.

Calls have been ringing out, including from the conservative camp, to stop the “national identity” debate.

My American friends may have trouble believing that there really is a political party in France called the New Anti-Capitalist Party. Its French initials are NPA, and it’s the successor to the Revolutionary Communist League.

For my American friends, I’d describe the NPA as a protest party, with no serious chance of holding elective office.

Though the NPA may be little, its graphic design is world class.

Here’s an example I saw while biking around Paris this weekend, affixed to a utility box beside a canal near La Villette, a neighborhood with a working-class, left-wing past that has been undergoing gentrification and “bobo”-fication. My example features two posters. One pledges to tax the bosses, with an interesting image of a fat cat. I’m intrigued by the image because, to my eyes, it succeeds in being lighthearted (like a comic book) and deadly serious (because the boss is sitting on a pile of money that could otherwise used to boost wages and create jobs). The other is a generic poster for the party. Both posters show the NPA logo, a red-and-white logo of a loudspeaker: it’s a protest, a clenched fist; and it’s also a cry, transmitted by the megaphone speaker. The NPA stands for organized protest. The red background recalls the party’s far-left heritage; the white sans-serif lettering speaks clearly.

The quality of the NPA graphic design stands out, especially in comparison with the UMP, the governing party in France today. The UMP’s logo echoes the French (or Paris) flag. The party initials are written in serifed characters. In small print, in blue on a white background, the party is also identified as “the popular movement”, which doesn’t correspond (in French) to the UMP initials. Finally, there is a big tree in the middle of the logo. Why? If you’re not among the initiated, it’s hard to know why.