We must face three obvious facts. No party or coalition has been able to convince the French to give it an absolute majority, or even, let’s be serious, a relative majority. We have neither a majority nor an opposition. The main camps define themselves as irreconcilable. Conclusion: the country therefore seems to be in a political impasse.
In France, we believe that compromise is a scam, that consensus is a moral renunciation, a form of perjury. We are aristocrats of thought, intellectuals of politics. In French politics, pragmatism is base, almost an insult; we do not trade with ideas! It is the fruit of our political history from the wars of religion to the Fifth Republic, including the Revolution. We confront each other in violence, convinced that what divides us is more important than what unites us.
So we have often needed a savior, a “hero” who soothes and brings us together. Each era has had its jokers, its Jacques Delors, but in the political era of TikTok we don’t have many cards up our sleeves. So what if we turned to one of the last political figures now above the parties? What if it was time to call on someone who no longer wants power but who could exercise it for the benefit of all?
This figure is not in Parliament, in fact he cannot be in Parliament, nor belong to a party. A credible personality in the eyes of entrepreneurs and social partners would be needed, who would allow a certain economic stability and would be a guarantor of social equity. A worthy authority that would calm the political debate by governing the country for three years, without ulterior motives, only in the general interest, because he will not be a candidate in the next presidential election.
Surge of rationalism
Our party leaders could ignore all sectarianism and put aside their immediate personal ambitions to get the country out of the rut. We could have a surge of rationalism. We could call upon a statesman, with great experience and who would have occupied almost all the highest functions of the Republic: several times minister, including Economy and Foreign Affairs, Prime Minister, President of the National Assembly.
A wise man among wise men, who has been the guarantor of respect for our Constitution for eight years. A man who could not be suspected of accommodating the President of the Republic but who would know how to establish a serious dialogue with him at the right level. A man who, regardless of each person’s personal feelings towards him, could not seriously be rejected by the government left, and who should be able to be respected by the center and the Republican right.
The President and the National Assembly could agree to ask Laurent Fabius to form a government of women and men who are above all competent, at the service of all French people and committed to France.
*Séverin Naudet is a digital entrepreneur. He contributed to the development of Dailymotion, managed the social media subsidiary of the Havas group and led the digital transformation of the State and the digital communication of the government at Matignon between 2007 and 2012. He is a senior advisor to Blenders. Blenders is a consulting firm in positioning and influence.