Paul Melun is an essayist and president of “Souverains Demain
!”.
He coordinated the publication of a collective work,
Sovereigns tomorrow: manifesto for an independent, ecological and innovative France
(ed. Marie B., 2021).
At the bend of a culpable vagrancy on Twitter, it can happen to Internet users that we are to spot one of these famous videos which “make the buzz”.
Climbing into this category certainly generates a gain in notoriety and high visibility.
On Sunday March 5, the young LFI deputy Louis Boyard managed to climb into the digital Olympus thanks to a noticed video, approaching one million views.
The chosen one invites high school students and students to block their establishments and to share their photos on social networks with a hashtag “BlocusChallenge”.
Those who win this game will win a visit to the National Assembly.
With his down jacket "made in the USA" and his anglicisms, MP Boyard fits perfectly into the movement of "elected influencers".
Imitating the stars of social networks, sort of digital carpet merchants, he is one of the many elected officials who now take up the codes of a new mercantile and demeaning communication.
When influencers offer their fans bottles of shampoo or subscriptions to diet food, Louis Boyard offers a visit to the National Assembly.
As an umpteenth testimony to the powerful influence of American globalization, this elected prolongs (without probably being aware of it) the decline of French politics.
With others, he signs the desertion of a French left formerly steeped in culture and concerned with national independence, sacrificed on the altar of a badly acquired celebrity.
Accustomed to this role of "chosen-influencer", the same Louis Boyard proudly displayed his "shisha" on RMC a few months ago and participated in a rap clip seated on the terrace of a kebab.
He thus enriched his portrait of a young disciple of the American left, with a cultural contribution from North Africa, essential in the panoply of the contemporary young leftist.
At a time when power is no longer really in the hands of elected officials, they are reduced to the role of organizers and communicators.
Paul Melun
Honesty compels us to note that MP Boyard is only an anecdotal example among the mass of "elected influencers".
Like his colleague Ugo Bernalicis, who distinguished himself in an anti-police rap clip with dubious lyrics, while he claimed to replace Gérald Darmanin in Beauvau, or even the visit, in December 2021, of reality TV candidates at the Ministry of the Interior with Marlène Schiappa who sang and danced with the Minister.
In another register, closer to the Netflix series, President Macron staged himself in a web series in several episodes on social networks during the 2022 presidential campaign.
The era of “elected influencers” marks the decline of politics.
At a time when power is no longer really in the hands of elected officials, they are reduced to the role of organizers and communicators.
Kinds of Club Med GOs, they play up their popularity with sterile videos, selfies and buzz.
Those who really exercise power are much more discreet, more serious.
Senior European civil servants, international investment bankers and other leaders of multinational corporations are hardly bothered by the antics of Louis Boyard or Marlène Schiappa in their strategic arbitrations.
If at the end of the 19th century or at the beginning of the Fifth Republic the destiny of France was decided in the National Assembly, it is now no more than a chamber of
Read alsoNoémie Halioua: "Louis Boyard or the politics of excessive buzz"
Out of cynicism among the most skilful “elected influencers”, or out of stupidity among others, this way of doing politics damages democracy.
By having a false idea of the people, whom they fantasize as a kind of consumerist and credulous populace, they weaken popular intelligence year after year.
The leveling down of the political debate keeps the French away from the Republic.
Abstention progresses and disgust towards partisan structures takes hold.
By impoverishing ideas and concepts, the "elected influencers" are sabotaging the country's democratic culture.
The presidential election turns into a Lépine competition for communication and moves away from the essential civilizational choice that it should guarantee.
To see elected representatives of the Republic agitating in this demagogic and mind-numbing cacophony is heartbreaking for anyone who loves France.
Our political tradition is old and is part of a filiation that requires a quality debate.
In this, the “chosen influencers” are arsonists.
Deprived of power, they seek to console themselves in the illusion of “influence”.
Renouncing to exercise their mission with the nobility that this implies, they precipitate France into the political abyss for a few bridles of notoriety.
These people are fools.
