Negotiations to appoint a Prime Minister are going well. They remind those who had forgotten that our political parties are more comfortable with grandiloquent ideological postures marked by “never” and “always” than in the less sparkling art of compromise. “They are preparing for the presidential election,” some observers believe. Until then, France’s interest and its urgent need for reforms will have to wait. Unless we manage to convince our leaders that there is a powerful and consensual social project that they could implement without any party denying its convictions, as it makes them converge towards the common interest. This project is that of producing in France. France is not a country of compromise. Our fellow citizens are loud-mouthed and tenaciously snobbish. We do not lower ourselves to discuss with an adversary, here in France. He is necessarily unapproachable. So we excommunicate him.
Only great men, forged by terrible events, manage to unite. Their grip cuts through the endless disputes – or participatory debates – that block our progress. France then leaps forward, suddenly catching up, even taking the lead. Until we tire of the real or supposed megalomania of these commanders, we tear down their statues, and fall back into the party system. Each of them proposes that we unite behind him, while warning loudly that he will not tolerate any compromise. We will “implement the program. The whole program.”
Charles “providential” de Gaulle, designer of the Fifth Republic, had foreseen this. Because he had experienced the instability of parliamentary republics, their inability to adapt to the changes of an accelerating world. His system guaranteed that, even in times of great division, one current would take the majority to be able to govern without taking into account party disputes. He had foreseen everything. Except the republican front.
Many voters, undoubtedly sincere, preferred to deprive the Assembly of a majority rather than let a party they feared come to power. So our deputies are forced to compromise. For politicians who know that their public is fond of committed speeches, of panache tirades marked by radicalism, the soup simmering in the coalition’s pot is bland. However, it will have to be drunk. Because three years without a government is a long time.
France needs victories
There is, however, a way. The Olympic Games have shown this. That of pride and exploits. The trickle-down theory, contested in economics, clearly works very well for glory. Brought back by a handful of champions, it covered the entire people with joy and gladness for several weeks. With all due respect to those who see in them only a source of inequalities that must be erased, France needs victories. It only agrees to unite to astonish the world and only moves in the right direction if it feels admired. This is why we need medals, grandiose ceremonies, universal exhibitions and football World Cups.
But these events are rare. And sport alone cannot quench our thirst. We must therefore extend our sources of pride to other centers of French excellence. Art is one. Industrial enterprise too.
Some of them are also champions in their discipline. Champions who do not just accumulate economic performances. They deploy treasures of innovation and immense efforts to integrate the challenges of our time into their professions. They help us, when they produce in France, to recover the sovereignty we need to decarbonize our consumption, to produce the wealth that will finance our solidarity. Sovereignty will please the right, solidarity the center and the left, decarbonization everyone.
Let’s celebrate the medals of our companies and factories
Our industries are, like the thousands of sports clubs in our territory, an excellent way to offer opportunities to those who are not aware of their potential. They allow the rise of some, include others and unite through their projects those who have sometimes been divided by politics or morality.
The Paris 2024 opening ceremony showed the way. Because behind those it glorified, because they are repairing Notre-Dame, because they designed the cauldron, because they combined art with mechanical expertise to give life to a silver horse galloping on the river, it is all our bold entrepreneurs, our workers with rare know-how, our engineers with new ideas who were saluted.
The workers of our large groups, our public agencies, our local authorities and our SMEs have cleaned up the Seine. Those of the luxury giants have added the touch of elegance that made the most hollow moments of the Olympic protocol such lovely moments.
So, when the Paralympic Games have brought their share of medals, let’s not forget to celebrate those won by our companies, our factories, our industrial and creative talents. May our politicians take the necessary measures together to make our industrial territories more competitive. May they listen to them, remove the obstacles that hold them back and give them the means to win. Taking over from the athletes, these industrial champions will allow us to keep alive the flame of French ambition that the Games have rekindled.
* Gilles Attaf, President of Origine France garantie, and Laurent Moisson are the co-founders of the French Industrial Forces.