Harlem Désir Becomes First Black Man to Lead France’s Ruling Party

He could be in line to be the first black president of a European country

by Linn Washington, Jr.
Will Harlem Désir be the Barack Obama of France, becoming the first black president of that European nation?

Equally important, will things improve for racial minorities – particularly blacks – in France in the wake of his elevation as the first black to lead a major political party anywhere in Europe?

Speculation and expectation are riding high with the recent vote placing Désir at the leadership helm of France’s now ruling Socialist Party.

Members of France’s Socialist Party (PS) overwhelmingly selected Désir as their party chief during that group’s annual congress in early October.

Désir, 52, had served as interim PS party chief since June 2011. He assumed that post when the previous occupant stepped down to take part in presidential primaries. Désir, according to many reports, has close ties to French President François Hollande, who once headed the Socialist Party.

The fact that former PS leaders Hollande and François Mitterrand went on to to the presidency of France fuels speculation about the prospects of Désir holding that post in the future.

With Hollande having a five-year term and French political tradition indicating he will likely seek a second term in 2017, the earliest opportunity for a possible Désir presidential candidacy is 2022.

Désir’s first national prominence in France came during the 1980s when he led the anti-racism SOS Racism Association (SOS Racisme in French) from 1984 to 1992. He is one of the few French political figures “from the advocacy world,” one news report noted.

Désir’s background as an anti-racism activist fuels expectations among non-whites in France that he will push his party to more forcefully address inequities in employment and economic opportunities constraining racial minorities in France, particularly those from Africa and the Caribbean.

Louis-Georges Tin, president of France’s CRAN (Representative Council of Black Associations), issued a recent press release expressing the hope that Désir does “not forget” where he came from.

“Harlem Désir should not be the tree that hides the forest. [D]espite the election, diversity is still very poorly represented in the PS,” Tin’s press release stated. He expressed an interest in meeting with Désir as soon as possible “to tell him of the news of racism in France…”

Blacks comprise around 4 percent of France’s population, according to many estimates because French law bars collection of data on ethnicity and race.

Désir, born in Paris in 1959, is the son of a father from Martinique and a French-born mother. Named Jean-Philippe by his parents, he changed his first name to Harlem as homage to African-American leaders, according to widely published accounts.

Outside of his endeavors in activism and politics, Désir held various occupations, including radio host, publishing house employee and manager of an organization dealing with youth housing.

Désir has some political baggage arising from a 1998 conviction for collecting a paycheck for a non-existent job and amassing $12,000 Euros in traffic fines. The conviction netted an 18-month suspended sentence. In 1992, he received amnesty for the traffic fines from then French President Mitterrand.

Désir joined PS in 1994 and won a seat in the European parliament five years later. He retained that seat in 2004 and 2009 through re-election.

This elevation of the long-time Socialist Party operative triggers natural comparisons to U.S. President Barack Obama.

Both have similar backgrounds, Désir as an anti-racism campaigner and Obama as a community organizer. Both are sons of black fathers and white mothers. Both attended top universities in their respective countries. Désir earned a philosophy degree from Paris’ Pantheon-Sorbonne and Obama studied at two Ivy-League institutions, earning a law degree from Harvard. And both have achieved historic ‘firsts.’

One distinction between Désir and Obama was noted in a recent report on a Paris-based international news/current affairs television channel: Desir lacks the “charisma” of Obama.

“Désir has shown he has talent but has not shown he is exceptional,” contends an assessment by French-American historian Nicole Bacharan in that France 24 news account.

The elevation of Désir to head the PS comes when the government of French President François Hollande appointed a black woman – Christiane Taubira – as its Minister of Justice.

Taubira, from French Guyana, was in 2002 the first black candidate in a French presidential election. A veteran legislator in France, she receives credit as a driving force behind a 2001 law recognizing the Atlantic Slave Trade and slavery as a crime against humanity.

That law, interestingly, is a lever used in legal actions now seeking reparations from France for deprivations from slavery, colonialism and post-colonialism. Those legal actions are mounted by MIR (the International Reparations Movement), composed primarily of black activists from France and former French colonies in Africa and the Caribbean.