Literary start: "Why do politicians write books?"

Christian Le Bart is professor of political science at Sciences Po Rennes.

In 2012, he wrote

La politique en librairie, Publishing Strategies for Politicians

.

This year, he published

Nouvelle sociologie politique de la France,

published by Armand Collin.

FIGAROVOX.

- In this return, three members of the government publish a book.

What is the objective pursued?

Christian LE BART. -

If we start from the idea that political competition is always a bit of a race for popularity, then it is also a race for visibility. Paradoxically, however, ministers are condemned to a fairly well-kept, fairly controlled form of visibility. The role of minister is an executive role that confers visibility only in a context of loyalty to other ministers and to the Head of State. They are also locked in a particular sector which is that of their ministry and cannot assert a full and entire personality. Thus, from the point of view of political competition, being a minister is good, it gives visibility, but it is visibility that has its limits.

From this point of view, the book allows ministers to go beyond their executives a little and to free themselves from their sectoral confinement.

For example, Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, a good little soldier, very loyal to the Prime Minister and the President, is condemned to a certain invisibility and remains confined to very technical subjects.

Having written a book in December 2020 (

L'Ange et la bête: Mémoire Provisoires

) allows him to exist in a somewhat unique way.

The book makes him a political figure in the full sense of the term.

The interpenetration between the literary and the political is very strong in France.

Christian Le Bart

The book is also a medium that provides access to the media. The politician awaits his invitation at Ruquier or at

La Grande Librairie

. He is also waiting for his good pages to be published in

Le Figaro

or

L'Express.

He can therefore now exist as a personality and not just as a minister. I call this the “rise in presidentiality”.

But above all, if the book allows this “rise in presidentiality” it is because it is considered as a noble object.

He is attached to the presidential figure in the history of the Fifth Republic with the

War Memoirs of

General de Gaulle or with

French Democracy

by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.

And we know that France is also considered the land of literature.

This interpenetration between the political and the literary is very strong with us.

In short, the fact of writing allows you to tear yourself away from the baseness of

tweets

, news channels or short sentences in the press and to rise up by taking the risk of long-term argumentation, discussion with history.

The book confers all the privileges of intellectuality.

Don't these books sometimes have a counterproductive effect, with this criticism that often emerges: “where do they find the time”?

The question does not arise too much when, like Blanquer in this re-entry, the book participates in defending the action of his ministry.

On the other hand, this question was at the heart of the debate when Bruno Le Maire published his book in December 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 turmoil.

He was taking risks because he wrote a column that was meant to be literary and not just political.

Charges of not writing the book can then emerge.

The risk is above all the accusation of dilettantism.

To be a minister, in principle, is to devote yourself body and soul to your role.

However, the minister who writes is suspected of deserting his task a little and if he writes things which are far from his ministerial department, he is suspected of careerism.

They often get away with pirouettes: "

I write at night"

, "

I don't sleep much

".

Regarding the Mayor, he said "

I need my hour of reflection every day and to extricate myself from the urgency of the files

".

This ability to gain height and see things with hindsight contributes a little to the rise in presidentiality.

The detour through fiction, through pure literature, is often a sign of withdrawal from political life.

Christian Le Bart

Marlène Schiappa is going to publish a novel entitled

His way of being mine

.

Have we ever seen a minister in office publish a work of fiction?

Many political professionals have resorted to fiction.

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing wrote a novel

Le Passage a

few years after his defeat in 1981. Dominique de Villepin wrote poetry.

We can also cite François Léotard or Noël Mamère.

However, this detour through fiction, through pure literature, is often a sign of withdrawal from political life.

Publishing novels as part of a political career remains quite rare.

In this re-entry, a political figure makes the opposite movement.

Eric Zemmour is primarily an essayist, and has the potential to become a presidential candidate.

Is this an advantage for him?

Éric Zemmour is more of an essayist, a journalist, a columnist than a writer.

He does not move from the literary world to the political world, he comes from the media.

Zemmour has a strong visibility capital but he has a large number of weaknesses.

It lacks a political party, political forces, militants or the legitimacy of universal suffrage.

He still leaves with a certain number of handicaps.

In its strategy, the book is therefore a way to overcome its weaknesses.

He does with the resources he has, it's his own way of existing but also of gaining height.

While his daily column on CNews required him to comment on the hottest news, returning to writing allows him to distance himself from it.

His book also seems programmatic.

The word “France” in a title is often indicative of presidential ambition.