Mixed Race Studies

Could Harlem Désir, France’s First Black Socialist Party Chief, Become The Next Obama?

International Business Times
2012-10-26

Jacey Fortin, World Politics Reporter

For the first time ever, a black politician will take the reins of a major political party in France. If all goes well for him, 2022 in France could look a lot like 2008 in the United States.

Harlem Désir, 52, has been serving as the interim Socialist Party head since last year. So it was no surprise he was voted in as the official chief of the bloc that currently controls the parliament and the presidency under Francois Hollande during a party congress in the city of Toulouse on Thursday.

Analysts immediately began comparing the French politician to U.S. President Barack Obama, who broke down racial barriers to win an election for the most powerful political position in the U.S. in 2008.

But Désir is a long way from the presidential post. Hollande is likely to run on the Socialist ticket in 2017 — and even the next Socialist presidential candidate, in 2022, won’t necessarily be Désir.

But he certainly has a fair shot, and that in itself is reason to keep a close eye on this ambitious politician.

Like Obama, Désir has a white mother and a black father. He has a bookish demeanor, although he once campaigned vocally against racial prejudices in France…

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France: The Socialists’ New Head, Harlem Désir

The Daily Beast (In Newsweek Magazine)
2012-10-29

Tracy McNicoll, Paris correspondent

The faded star of a French anti-racist icon.

In a country that went tipsy with Obamania four years ago, Harlem Désir’s election to lead France’s ruling Socialist Party might seem an occasion for bubbly. Désir—whose gifts include the coolest name in French politics—is the nation’s first black party leader. But his rise has elicited stunning indifference. In September, 74 percent of French poll respondents said they didn’t care. Only half of card-carrying Socialists bothered to cast their ballots. And the critics have been even less kind…

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French MP Harlem Désir set to become first black man to lead a major European political party

The Independent
London, England
2012-09-12

John Lichfield

The French Euro MP Harlem Désir appears certain next month to become the first black man to lead a major European political party.

After weeks of wrangling, Mr Désir, 52, was today named as the official choice of the hierarchy of the French Socialist party to replace Martine Aubry as its “first secretary” or national leader. The ruling party’s annual conference, set to take place between 26 and 28 October, is expected to endorse the choice overwhelmingly, giving Mr Désir a position once held by the late President François Mitterrand, the former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and the current President, François Hollande.

Mr Désir is seen as a safe pair of hands and competent administrator rather than a man likely to emerge as Mr Hollande’s successor as a “French Obama” or the Next Big thing on the Left. His choice is, nonetheless, a significant event in a country in which racial minorities have only recently started to play leading political roles.

Born “Jean-Philippe” in Paris in 1959, with a West Indian father and a Jewish mother, Mr Désir emerged in the 1980s as a Trotskyist, student and anti-racist activist. He changed his first name to “Harlem” in homage to African-American political leaders…

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