FIGAROVOX/TRIBUNE – The first round of the legislative elections confirms the En Marche wave at the polls despite the highest abstention rate in the history of the Fifth Republic. Decoding with Maxime Tandonnet.
Maxime Tandonnet, former adviser to Nicolas Sarkozy, is the author ofHistory of the Presidents of the Republic (eds; Perrin, 2013 and 2017) and Outcasts of the Republic (ed. Perrin, 2017).
By the greatest of paradoxes, we are witnessing a vertiginous aggravation of what "deep France" reproaches to the political world and the elites.
Each year, the survey CIVIPOF on the "confidence of the Frenchunderlines the growing divide between the so-called Francefrom below», that of the silent majority and France called «from the top», that of the ruling, media and intellectual elites. Thus, in January 2017, 89% of French people thought that political leaders “disregard what people like them think», 40% felt distrust of politicians, 28% disgust, 3% fear.
Are the events of recent weeks likely to thwart this phenomenon? A radical renewal of the faces of the political class is “working», in line with public expectations. The upheaval is such that many intellectuals compare the current period to the year 1958 which saw the transition from the Fourth to the Fifth Republic and the swing of French public life into a new era. A wave of euphoria, optimism, enthusiasm, youth, swept over the media world. Real revolution or ephemeral illusion?
It is clear that the intoxication of the "recomposition"ignites the supposed France"from the topwho is exulting at the moment in a consensual, if not unanimous, climate. France called "from belowis silent by definition but, in fact, she has little reason to rejoice. Basically, beyond the renewal of faces, by the greatest of paradoxes, we are witnessing a vertiginous worsening of what the "Deep Francereproaches the political world and the elites. The excess of personalization of power is reaching hallucinatory proportions, as Gilles de Lipovetsky points out in theExpress, to the detriment of the general interest. The debate of ideas, like social projects, are old-fashioned notions, and political life now only exists through the individual destiny of characters who are idols for a day, doomed to become scapegoats, the pariahs, the plague-stricken of tomorrow, in a climate of media hysteria that characterizes the "politics show". The postures, the excessive communication can make it possible to delay the passage from idolatry to mass lynching, but probably not to avoid it.
The debate of ideas, the democratic exchange has never taken place, at any time.
The debate of ideas, the democratic exchange has never taken place, at any time. The first round of the presidential elections was marred by an apocalyptic scandal. The second swung into the grand comedy, a second-round caricature, intended to eradicate any kind of uncertainty. The legislative elections, which have always been, since the proclamation of the Republic in 1870, a privileged moment in French democratic life, have this time been totally neutralized, annihilated, sold to the French as a simple formality intended to confirm the results of the ballot. presidential. The major substantive issues - the reform of Europe, the protection of borders, national unity and the fight against communitarianism, the future of "sensitive cities“Adrift, terrorism, security, foreign policy, have disappeared from radar screens…
Legislative elections are traditionally, in the history of the Republic, including the Fifth Republic, a key moment in democratic life where the choice of a social project is made. In 2017, France lost interest in it. According to polls, Working should obtain 30% of the vote, with an abstention rate worthy of a cantonal election, estimated at 50%. Therefore, with the adhesion of only 15% of the electorate, this movement should win an overwhelming absolute majority in the National Assembly, of four fifths of the seats. Result: less than a fifth of the votes and four fifths of the deputies. The symbol is devastating: less than a fifth of the country, that is to say, the so-called Francefrom the top", is about to impose a total domination on the four-fifths, France called "from below».
There is a very simple way to remedy this democratic catastrophe, without legislative or constitutional modification: to place the legislative elections before the presidential elections.
French democracy is sick and this absurd situation heralds all the fractures and dramas of the future. The question of the reform of the voting system, by introducing a dose of proportional representation, should be essential. But above all, there would be a very simple way to remedy this democratic catastrophe, without legislative or constitutional modification: to place the legislative elections – the debate of ideas – before the presidential elections, the choice of a face, dominated by emotion media. But in the general climate of stupidity, who would dare to think of this common sense solution?
Source: © Le Figaro Premium – Legislative: The democratic divide
