A keen observer of French political life and columnist for FigaroVox, Maxime Tandonnet has notably published
André Tardieu.
The misunderstood
(Perrin, 2019) and
Georges Bidault: from the Resistance to French Algeria
(Perrin, 2022).
The political novelty of 2022 was due to the shift (all relative) of the traditional center of interest of the French for the presidential election, towards the legislative elections.
Indeed, on the eve of the first round of the "queen election" under the Fifth Republic, rarely had the result of a national vote appeared so announced in advance: over five years, from 2017 to 2022, among thousands of polls, not one had predicted an outcome other than a second round between Marine le Pen and Emmanuel Macron and then the latter's landslide victory.
And for the second consecutive time after the "Fillongate" of 2017, the presidential election of 2022 did not give rise to the classic democratic meeting.
Emmanuel Macron, warlord after two years of the Covid-19 epidemic and in the midst of the war
Consequently, at the end of a largely neutralized presidential election, the interest of the French people seemed to focus more than usual on the legislative elections of June 12 and 19, 2022. And, for the first time so clearly in In the history of the Fifth Republic, the voters refused to grant the Head of State, in the wake of his election, a blank check to lead the country.
“Together”, the coalition of the presidential majority with 245 seats, was far from the absolute majority of 289 seats, ahead of the left Nupes (131), the National Rally (89), and the Republicans (61).
And this paradoxical result – the refusal to give confidence to the president, who was nevertheless reappointed to the Élysée – was welcomed by a vast majority: 71% of French people declared themselves satisfied (Elabe).
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Six months later, has this little revolution, yes or no, had a beneficial effect on French political life?
Because 2022 was also a year of awareness of a collapse in the economic and social situation of the country.
The tragedies of urban chaos, insecurity and illegal immigration have deeply struck public opinion.
The announcement of a record trade deficit of 100 billion euros underlined the scale of deindustrialisation.
The Covid-19 epidemic has revealed the weakening of the health system.
Several studies have put their finger on the impressive collapse of the school level, both in mathematics and in French.
A report by the Court of Auditors revealed a staggering increase in public debt of 560 billion in two years (including 140 billion linked to the health crisis), the result of a political choice: “whatever the cost”.
The dramatic rise in the price of
Thus, since the result of the legislative elections of 2022, the Grand Guignol politician has only gotten worse.
Maxime Tandonnet
Powerless in the face of the accumulation of difficulties and tragedies, political leaders have favored (for a long time) escape into spectacle or excessive communication.
To the detriment of truth and action, they have largely confined themselves to a theatrical staging geared towards enhancing their characters.
This phenomenon explains the profusion of provocations or polemics intended to divert the attention of the French from the collapse in progress.
The presidential system which directs the gaze towards a character in charge of the “leading role” lends itself to this logic.
Thus the year 2022 began with the thunderous declaration of a president who
"very much wanted to annoy the unvaccinated"
which has stifled public debate on the results of health policy;
it continued with his appearance as a high-profile warlord in the Ukraine War;
then it ended with his irruption on the stage of the Football World Cup, an emblematic gesture of the fusion between politics and spectacle.
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But six months after the legislative elections, it is clear that the gesture of defiance of the French towards the Head of State – the refusal of an absolute majority – has not made it possible to redirect French policy from bluster to the common good.
On the contrary, a strongly radicalized Assembly in turn engages in a sad spectacle dominated by hysterical fury (like the Ocean Viking affair).
Basically, parliamentary chaos presents itself as the inverted mirror of Jupiterian narcissism.
But the logic is always that of political flight into emotion and gesticulations to the detriment of action in the service of France.
And the trivialized use of article 49-3 (on 10 occasions) which allows the adoption of texts without a vote of the deputies, only
Thus, since the result of the legislative elections of 2022, the Grand Guignol politician has only gotten worse.
Today, the country is on the verge of paralysis and an abyss in a context of erratic social movements and the state of its political system casts doubt on its ability to take up the challenge of reforming the retreats.
In any case, the proof has been made that the bankruptcy of French politics is not so much a question of the balance of powers as the personality of its leaders and elected politicians, their sense of the State, their character, their education and intellectual level.
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