A fine observer of French political life and a regular contributor to FigaroVox, Maxime Tandonnet notably published André Tardieu. The misunderstood (Perrin, 2019).
To discover
Presidential 2022: find here the result of the second round of the election
"On victory nights, we imagine that there will never, ever, ever be a defeat again [...] But when you're an old soldier, Madame Jeanne, you know what's going on."
(Charles Peguy).
On the Champ-de-Mars, supporters and admirers of Emmanuel Macron are jubilant at the end of this great first which is the re-election of a President of the Republic under the five-year system.
And if this exploit – which is accompanied by a record abstention for this type of ballot – was only a sham?
And if the euphoria which accompanies the verdict of the polls, was not other than the screen of a democratic bankruptcy?
For in truth, of what is this victory the fruit?
It is the fruit of
resignation
: the vast majority of French people have repeatedly affirmed that they do not want the Le Pen-Macron duel (80% according to a
Marianne
poll of February 2020), nor re-election. of President Macron.
Ultimately, they have not found a collective way out of the trap that has closed in on them: five years of intense media demonization of Marine Le Pen to ensure her presence in the second round (assurance of re-election), followed, between the towers, the hasty return of scarecrows (fascism, racism, etc.).
This victory is that of fate, announced as inevitable for five years by the polls.
The absolute concealment of the balance sheet of a five-year term will remain as the major feature of this election.
Maxime Tandonnet
It is the fruit of
the social fracture:
never has a presidential election given rise to such a deep and irreducible tear between two blocs that find themselves face to face, on the one hand the satisfied, globalized and Europeanist bourgeoisie, on the other apart from peripheral, working-class France, the most exposed to suffering, contempt and arrogance, the one that has received the insults of its ruling class in the face, from
s "without teeth"
to
"those who are nothing"
or
"can't even afford a suit"
.
This election was never the occasion, classic in democracy, of a battle between two projects, but of an irreducible confrontation between two irreconcilable Frances... And its result only crystallizes the tear.
It is the fruit of
fear: "He who controls the fear of others becomes master of their soul"
(Machiavelli).
Faced with "yellow vests", Covid 19, the Russian military or nuclear threat and then the "extremist danger", from right and left, President Macron has imposed himself in the posture of "national saviour", particularly in the eyes of an urban bourgeoisie, conservative and wealthy, rather old and fearful which now forms the hard core of its electorate alongside a “progressive” bourgeoisie seduced by its societal measures.
It is the fruit of
blindness
: the absolute concealment of the balance sheet of a five-year term will remain as the major feature of this election, for example on the worsening of poverty, the destruction of freedoms, the explosion of public debt and deficits, the collapse of the level of education and public services, particularly health, or the industrial decline which is expressed in a record deficit in foreign trade, insecurity and the loss of border control... Of all this, never there was no question.
And let's not even talk about business...
It is the fruit of
felony
: probably never has an electoral campaign been so marked by an avalanche of betrayals, pettiness or opportunistic volte-faces, like those which have contributed to nailing down the candidacy of Mrs. Pécresse.
Courtesanship was enriched by a powerful wave of conformism
,
calls to vote "Macron" imposing themselves as a pledge of respectability for the political and media world as well as for that of entertainment or mediatized sport.
This strange election has exacerbated passions against a backdrop of abyssal nothingness from the point of view of ideas, in an extraordinarily deleterious if not explosive climate.
Maxime Tandonnet
It is the fruit of
nihilism
: historically, each presidential election had a content that transcended the choice of a personality: freedoms in 1981, the social divide in 1995, national identity in 2007, etc.
No doubt never has an election been so devoid of project or meaning as in 2022, reduced to its plebiscite dimension, narcissistic exaltation and cult of personality from another age.
The future of the country will have been, from beginning to end, the great forgotten.
This strange election has exacerbated passions against a backdrop of abyssal nothingness from the point of view of ideas, in an extraordinarily deleterious if not explosive climate.
So it has every chance of leading to five new years of heartbreak and chaos.
But it can also, where appropriate, represent an opportunity for democratic renewal.
Indeed, the neutralization of a presidential election without debate, almost without suspense and felt to be deeply boring from start to finish, could (perhaps) result in a renewed interest in the June legislative elections - as sitting to catch up with French democracy.
And the unprecedented prospect of the election of a National Assembly which would lead to something quite other than a simple booted majority, would then open up the prospect of
a rebalancing of the functioning of the State around a Parliament, a Prime Minister and a government worthy of democracy, capable of governing the country in the general interest and of standing up to the tenant of the Élysée.
But we're not there.
