Chloé Morin was opinion advisor to the Prime Minister from 2012 to 2017. She is currently working as an associate expert at the Jean Jaurès Foundation. She recently published with Decitre
Les inamovibles de la République - You will never see them, but they govern.
FIGAROVOX.
- In political news, what highlight will you remember from 2020?
Chloe MORIN.
-
Obviously the COVID epidemic.
Beyond its economic and health impact, obviously tragic, I particularly remember the revealing nature of this pandemic: first, it revealed to us, by amplifying it as never before, the dysfunctions of our State apparatus.
To read also:
"Complotism", "Black Block", "OK Boomer" ... What words marked the debates of the year 2020?
We discovered with horror that elected officials and political representatives were not solely responsible for the grotesque decisions and incomprehensible actions of which we are regularly witnesses and victims as citizens: there is administrative red tape, technocratic aberrations, and a disconnection of elites of the state apparatus reaching incredible levels.
In addition, the crisis will have revealed, in a more global way, the extent of our democratic crisis - in the literal sense of the term, that is to say how the people,
demos
, exercise power.
Our decision-making mechanisms, like those which allow us to act collectively, are no longer adapted to the challenges of the 21st century, nor to the aspirations of a society which has made speed and horizontality basic requirements.
If we do not take into account this democratic crisis - which is another name for our identity crisis - it is impossible to understand why public opinion judges our executive much more harshly than other European peoples judge their leaders. .
Can we say that the major event of this year is the rise of the green vote and the media and political influence of elected EELV?
What will be the consequences of this new reorganization of the electoral landscape?
We can say that one of the major political events of this year is the advent of the climate emergency as a real priority, while it still seemed too secondary until now (although in progress).
Europe Ecology the Greens was one actor among others - I am thinking of a great many NGOs, or of actors like Greta Thunberg - in this awareness.
It was the party that benefited the most, especially in the last municipal elections, even if it is necessary to beware of a magnifying effect which gave the feeling of a "
green wave
" while the big winners of these elections, in terms of the total number of elected officials, were the old parties - notably the PS and LR.
The vaccine strategy (...) is slipping and may end up giving the feeling of national humiliation
Can we speak of a recomposition?
I do not believe.
Ecology will not be a new "
pole
", it will simply reconfigure current issues, especially the social question.
Logic would indeed want the ecological cause to "
normalize
", that is to say that it ceases to be the monopoly of a party, to feed the platforms of all of EELV's competitors.
Likewise, EELV should aspire to move from the status of a "
single-subject
" party to a government party, which supposes a clarification of its program on the many subjects which remain essential for the French, such as the regal, but on which they do not. do not know the positioning of the greens.
The year was also marked by a major challenge to the action of the executive, and a crumbling of the majority in the Assembly, as well as internal tensions (until recently on questions of global security for example).
In addition, it is advancing in dispersed ranks towards the upcoming regional elections.
2020, annus horribilis for the party of Emmanuel Macron?
When the French are questioned, they judge government action in this area severely.
But at the same time, they tell themselves that other countries are not doing much better, and that the other political forces in our country probably could not have handled better.
This is why on the strict electoral level, I do not believe at all that COVID is reshuffling the cards.
To read also:
Henri Guaino-Arnaud Montebourg: what reform of the State after the test of the Covid?
At least, for the moment ... because the vaccine strategy, which is slipping and may end up giving the feeling of national humiliation, and the economic strategy for exiting the crisis, which can be the opportunity to see the debates resurface on fiscal and social justice - the weak point of the government - conceal many pitfalls.
As to whether a party will be able to take advantage of these weaknesses ... hard to say.
Only mistrust (and with it political disaffiliation) seems to prevail.
The abstention from municipal elections has also revealed ...
This is the most visible aspect of the democratic crisis mentioned above.
The tragedy is that abstention, in times of crisis, can make our country more and more ungovernable: we need to manufacture consent to difficult decisions.
The electoral process is used for this: those who lose the election agree to submit to the decisions of the majority, precisely because they participated in the competition.
If we did not vote, if we feel despised by the institutions, ignored and not represented, then we have no reason to "unite" and to comply with collective decisions.
If we did not vote, if we feel despised by the institutions, ignored and not represented, then we have no reason to "
unite
" and to comply with collective decisions, especially when they are extraordinarily important. binding.
Therefore, this can generate movements like that of the yellow vests, which escape any political control.
The role of the state administration, against the backdrop of reform of the training of senior civil servants, is also at the heart of debates and criticisms.
Rightly in your opinion?
As I said above, this is one of the main lessons that I draw from the crisis - and that I have tried to explain in my book.
I am struck by the number of citizens - entrepreneurs, private and public employees, rural and urban alike - who, echoing my observation of bureaucratic red tape and administrative absurdities, shared with me examples drawn from their daily.
The subject of state reform has for too long been neglected, politically divested, or left to senior officials who, on principle, seek to preserve their interests and therefore the status quo.
To read also:
Benjamin Morel: "The LR barons saw that the rallying to LREM did not pay in the intermediate elections"
The
status quo
is no longer possible and I am quite convinced that we can now reach a consensus around radical proposals to reform the State, and in particular the senior administration, for more exemplarity, responsibility, efficiency, proximity and justice.
Some presidential candidates are starting to take up the subject - Montebourg, Bertrand ... - the others will in my opinion have no other choice but to come to it.
In the political subjects which have been hotly debated this year, one of them seems to have more consensus than before: the necessary protection of national sovereignty.
Is it an optical illusion?
The protection of sovereignty is indeed a consensus.
But all political parties do not interpret it in the same way: cultural and sovereign sovereignty will prevail on the right, when the left will be more inclined to seek independence in economic matters, in relation to a globalization source of inequalities, of injustices and destruction of the environment.
It will be interesting to observe (...) how the Castex government will know or not how to translate the lyrical flights of the President of the Republic into action.
Beyond these differences, it's a safe bet that there is, among some politicians, a fairly large gap between theory and practice.
It will be interesting to observe, in this respect, the way in which the Castex government will know or not how to translate the lyrical flights of the President of the Republic into action.
Finally, what would you like for the year 2021?
May this year allow us to collectively realize that the democratic apathy into which we are too inclined to sink is a real danger for our country, and that it is up to us to stop the vicious circle, by a democratic burst.