Anyone can attend the Académie française.
There is almost no rule.
Only a regulation enacted in 2010 prevents those over 75 from standing as a candidate.
But we saw two 15-year-old kids applying for a green coat.
This Thursday, March 4, they will not be less than fourteen candidates for an armchair, number 32, that of François Weyergans, who died in May 2019. If there is an elected after these votes, it will be necessary to recruit five other immortals to replace Marc Fumaroli, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Michel Serres, Jean-Loup Dabadie and Yves Pouliquen.
The 40 will thus be complete.
It will take time.
And yet the first problem encountered by the venerable institution is the overflow of candidates
"uninteresting, fanciful, eccentric ..."
, says one of the immortals, who adds gently
"without wanting to be derogatory"
.
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French Academy: Chantal Thomas succeeds Jean d'Ormesson
The other problem is not easier to solve: how to navigate between serious names that the immortals hope, but which do not apply (yet), and those, all
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