The first year of the mandate is coming to an end and the chapter of retreats is slowly closing. End of a media saturation lasting several months. A space that many politicians hasten to occupy having, like nature, also a horror of a vacuum. And hop ! Here is the good old trick of institutional reform brought out by Emmanuel Macron. Her friend, the President of the National Assembly then hastened to announce, drum beating, the constitution of a think tank on the subject. What to give grain to grind to Jean-Luc Mélenchon to bring down the “bad Republic”. However, behind the old decoy pretending to provide an answer to the eternal “distrust of the French” towards their representatives, languidly conceals additional proof of a troubling unconsciousness in the face of the magnitude of the problems we are going through.
Indeed, the inclusion of this theme on the agenda alone symbolizes the main grievances that the French have against their political class: rulers who never do what they were elected to do. While the geopolitical and economic crises accumulate, while the state of our finances and our public services calls for a reform burst, now those who are responsible choose to saw more and more this life insurance bequeathed by de Gaulle: the solidity of our institutions at the exclusive service of political efficiency.
And Ms. Braun-Pivet, without laughing, serves up the famous winning martingale: the introduction of proportional representation in order to “perpetuate” the current composition of the lower house with a formula on May 7 which deserves an inscription in capital letters in the political blooper: “The French seem to be satisfied with the absence of an absolute majority.” To believe that she liked so much the lamentable spectacle offered to the French by an Assembly become the place of blackmail and permanent blocking that she wants to institutionalize the fact of playing the future of the country according to the small arrangements (of which we have seen , through the inconstancy of the LR deputies, that it could be a nice fiasco).
How not to see that with such a system, our country condemns itself to half measures and our reforms to inefficiency? The tragi-comedy of pensions, the indefinite postponement of the immigration law… Have we still not understood the lesson at the top of the State? These Walkers, so sure of themselves, elected and re-elected thanks to the genius of their leader – and to unexpected circumstances – are they condemned to perpetual disconnection vis-à-vis voters that they ultimately never really met? Voters who expect something else from politics than the eternal constitutional reform which, under the guise of democracy, will further weaken an already discredited executive.
Read the writings of the politicians of the “old world”
As early as the 18th century, Montesquieu warned us not to touch the laws in force “except with a trembling hand”. In reality, the current balance of power in the Assembly leaves no doubt. The exercise will quickly look like a dangerous barter that will transform our institutions into an incoherent bric-a-brac and will end up weakening them.
The last example is not ten years old and concerns a single measure. The law on the non-cumulation of mandates had the flavor of the night of August 4: by prohibiting mayors from being deputies or senators, a “privilege” was abolished which would save France and restore “morality”. A beautiful disaster, which all deplore in private. While it was supposed to bring French people and parliamentarians closer together, this demagogic law has, on the contrary, distanced the deputy from the field. It was to strengthen the Assembly by bringing new skills into the hemicycle, it was much more amateurism that jumped out in the eyes of the French. But who will have the courage to stop this deadly deconstruction of the pillars of our Republic?
Madam President of the National Assembly, if your schedule permits, reread the writings of political leaders from the “old world”. They had their hour of glory and, despite upheavals, were able to guarantee a relatively peaceful functioning of our institutions. There may sometimes be some of them, valuable testimonies to collect to protect the future.
* Jean-François Copé is a former minister and mayor (LR) of Meaux.