A keen observer of French political life and regular contributor to the FigaroVox, Maxime Tandonnet has notably published
André Tardieu.
The misunderstood
(Perrin, 2019).
“For nearly two centuries, the call to the Savior has not ceased to resound in our history. From Napoleon Bonaparte to Philippe Pétain and Charles de Gaulle, via Boulanger, Poincaré or Doumergue, around a character tends to form the same constellation of images ”.
In his masterpiece,
Political Myths and Mythologies
, Raoul Girardet places recourse to the providential man in times of crisis among the pillars of the national political imagination.
At present, in the midst of the turmoil linked to the health crisis, polls highlight a phenomenon that does indeed resemble the emergence of a providential savior.
This would be none other than the former Prime Minister Mr. Édouard Philippe (2017-2020).
At a time when the country's confidence in the political world is showing all the signs of a collapse, the popularity rating of the former occupant of Matignon is breaking all records: 45% membership according to Odoxa;
at the top of the favorite personalities of the French with 41% of good opinions according to BVA;
crushing all political figures with 54% for the Elabe institute.
M. Philippe is on the front page of Le Point and L'Express.
He focuses media attention on a mystery: will he be a presidential candidate in 2022?
Everything happens as if the media power were therefore looking for a potential replacement for the current occupant of the Elysee Palace and saw in Édouard Philippe a recourse.
The enthusiasm for the former Prime Minister owes nothing to chance.
The head of state and his government are embroiled in the Covid-19 crisis.
Official statistics show nearly 95,000 victims.
The succession of confinements and curfews had the effect of severely restricting individual freedom.
Parliamentary democracy has been effectively suspended.
Public deficits and debt have taken on titanic proportions.
Under the cover of a bureaucratic “absurdistan”, millions of French people have been thrown into distress: traders, restaurateurs, people of culture, students… Exasperation is winning and the health crisis threatens to degenerate into a political crisis.
Only a third of French people still trust the government (IFOP-JDD).
The rating of the head of state is again in free fall.
Worse: several recent polls have cast doubt on the prospect of his re-election on the occasion of a second presidential round against the candidate Lepeniste.
Everything happens as if the media power were therefore looking for a potential replacement for the current occupant of the Elysee Palace and saw in Édouard Philippe a recourse.
And for the first time in years, a political figure - other than television broadcaster M. Hulot - is raiding the top of the polls alone.
But beyond his media exposure, the character of Édouard Philippe does not lack assets in this role of providential savior.
His profile of wise, reasonable and modest contrasts with that of President Jupiter.
Consensual, it reassures part of the electorate on the right and LREM but also on the left.
He knows how to cultivate a sober, serious and honest appearance.
Patient, he bides his time without haste or the slightest sign of disloyalty or unbridled ambition.
The character, even in his emblematic white and black beard, which has become familiar to the French, does not lack allure or nobility, or stature ... Far from power, he even benefits from an effect of victimization linked to his ousting from Matignon last year.
Far from power, Mr. Édouard Philippe even benefits from a victimization effect linked to his ouster from Matignon last year.
Real popular support or simple flash in the pan as France knows before each presidential election?
If politics is nothing more than a matter of seduction, posture and media image, Mr. Édouard Philippe has every chance of staying at the top of the polls for a long time or even of establishing himself sooner or later in the conquest of the world. 'Elysium.
On the other hand, if critical reason still retains a place there, its position may turn out to be more complex.
Indeed, the difficulty for him is, in all good faith, to stand out from the record of the current five-year term of which he was for three years the main player with President Macron.
How to forget the speed limit to 80 km / h and the carbon tax which were the triggers of the yellow vests crisis?
Then the retreats?
And the fiasco of the pension reform after two months of blocking the country?
A record that is more than worrying in terms of controlling immigration, violence, the enslavement of society and the growth of poverty?
And the initial mistakes in the health crisis (masks, tests, confinement).
In short, how can we forget the chaos of three years of a five-year term?
… Basically, the near political future of Mr. Édouard Philippe depends above all on the level of collective memory.
