There are understandable reasons for the French suspicion of conservatism. The French Revolution was a traumatic event because it forced the French to choose between the monarchist past and the democratic present without any compromise being available. The first “conservatives” were of necessity the monarchists, implacably opposed to the Revolution. In time, some of them adapted to the new political system, the Republic, especially after Napoleon III, but the great mistake of the contre-révolutionnaires was to remain so even at the end of the 19th century, when the Republic showed itself to be a success. Being stubborn monarchists and reactionaries, they were fundamentally anti-liberal and totally unable to accept that French society couldn’t survive in its old shape. Still, they preferred to be sidelined, becoming less and less numerous and more and more radical. In the 20th century, eventually, they found refuge in the extremism of Charles Maurras and his bitter anti-Semitism, which fortunately died with the end of the war, when the true colours of the revanchist Right were unveiled.

That is why in France today, for someone on the Right who would like to think of himself or herself as a conservative, there is nothing which compares to the richness of British political or intellectual conservatism. Where is the intelligent balance between tradition and change to be found? Where is the preference for everything which grows from below to anything inspired by the state? Where is the strong belief in liberty and the rule of law? Sometimes the British complain that their politicians lack intellectual substance. But at least British conservative politicians can place themselves, if they wish, in a philosophical tradition. British conservatism has a political and intellectual existence — even if it is “not a creed or a doctrine, but a disposition”, as Oakeshott famously stated.

Does this ambiguous legacy necessarily imply that, beyond the political and intellectual definition, there is no such thing as French conservatism as a cultural concept? On closer examination, the situation in France is more complex. As in Britain, the French Right is not monolithic. A large section of it, in a rather pathetic attempt to mimic the progressives, prefers to boast about “reform” and “renewal” — which, once it is in government, rarely happens. Some of them are sincerely progressive—why not? — while others say they are because they deem it to be fashionable. Another part of the Right, though smaller, has a more conservative character. Sarkozy’s speech at the Républicains conference stated everything dear to a cultural conservative’s heart: strong criticism of egalitarianism, praise of meritocracy and entrepreneurship, and love of the family. It does not mean that Sarkozy has become a conservative, but that he and his friends express now something closer to conservatism than they did before.

Some Anglophone commentators saw the “Republican” rebranding as a sign that the French Right — and the pro-American Sarkozy — wanted to move closer to its US counterpart. I doubt it very much, for the simple reason that when the French say “Republican” they mean “the Republic” — that is the only liberal tradition, in the sense of political liberalism, that they have. By seeking to appropriate the Republican legacy Sarkozy irritated the Left, even provoking an unsuccessful court appeal. But to associate the Republic only with the Left would be to forget that the French Republic is indeed a shared inheritance, even if the Revolution was a leftist product. The moderate Right progressively accepted the Republic throughout the 20th century, culminating in De Gaulle’s reign and the Gaullist Fifth Republic, which were all about the nation and pride in being French. Simultaneously, the progressive Left, trapped by its own pledge of extending the “rights” of individuals further and further, sacrificed the Republic — and is still doing so — on the altar of identity politics, leaving the inheritance ready to be claimed by others. The French Right, in claiming the name Les Républicains, is not taking the side of Rousseau but that of Jules Ferry, twice prime minister in the 1880s.