Darwin, Newton and Copernicus, three names that do not necessarily come to mind when we talk about politics… And yet! Curiously, the parallels abound to highlight the fact that the natural laws that they have updated also govern the political world. Like species, parties must adapt to the environment in which they evolve if they are to survive. Like any body, the body politic does not escape the law of gravity: it is constantly drawn towards the positioning of its electoral base. Like planet Earth, the political world is part of a system of which it is not the center. A little history is enough to prove to us that, when a party no longer responds to these great scientific principles, it is doomed. And there again the illustrations are not lacking.
Take the example of the Radical Party. An essential party of the Third and Fourth Republics, capable of making and unmaking a good number of Presidents of the Council and of taking part in no less than 34 governments, he learned the theory of evolution during the 20th century at his own expense. century. Unable to reinvent itself and adapt to the institutional changes of the Fifth Republic, the Radical Party is today only a shadow of itself. The pronounced bipartisanship of the new regime and the establishment of a strong executive got the better of it.
If the Radical Party has forgotten Darwin, the right has had the bitter experience of abandoning Newton. Between 2007 and 2012, it moved away from its political center of gravity, the very one which had nevertheless allowed Nicolas Sarkozy to access the Elysée. If she advocated the opening to the left in 2007, if she made sweet eyes to the voters of Marine Le Pen in 2012, she has between these two dates, chained missed appointments. Whether in terms of reducing public deficits, immigration or even the restoration of authority, all the indicators have deteriorated compared to Jacques Chirac’s five-year term. By not conducting the policy for which it was elected, the right not only lost power but also lost credibility. She is still paying the consequences today.
The end of Macronism will offer a new political deal
Another gap but the same sanction, that of a Socialist Party (PS) which has focused more on its internal quarrels rather than on the transformation of the country. Indeed, under the Hollande presidency, the caciques of the rose party forgot the Copernican revolution and saw their navel as the center of the universe. Quarrels between people, individual ambitions marked a five-year term and fractured the party on themes which, like secularism, nevertheless constituted the very identity of the French left. To prefer egocentrism to heliocentrism, to forget one of these great principles which apply both in science and in politics, the PS has condemned itself.
A few examples that remind us of the current situation of the Republicans. Like the Radical Party in its time, the Republicans are today unable to adapt to a political recomposition initiated in 2017 and accentuated during the last elections. As ten years ago, the right believes to find its salvation by trying to seduce voters, who will never vote for it, and in doing so shamelessly abandons its electoral base. The LR fiasco on pension reform has shown that egocentrism is a new paradigm within the party. Its ranks, however already sparse, are now eaten away by career ambitions. Today, reason no longer seems to be on the side of the Republicans. The party no longer obeys any rules and ticks all the boxes of a situation that will lead to its downfall. There is every reason to believe that the mistakes made today will have the same consequences tomorrow.
In 2027, the end of macronism will offer a new political deal: millions of voters will have to turn to a new candidate to carry the project of a modern right. If the Republicans want to respond to this meeting and write this new chapter tomorrow, it is urgent for them to reopen the books of history and political science.