For five years, we have heard the opposition and the media deplore a National Assembly under the orders of the Elysée, a “Playmobil” assembly, an assembly as far removed as possible from national representation; we have heard the opposition and the media calling for proportional representation, the Sixth Republic, an overhaul of institutions and other gadgets that will certainly not reconcile citizens with political life. And suddenly, after the legislative elections, a Parliament that resembles French society, despite an ever-increasing abstention, came out of the ballot box. But now the same oppositions and the same media, the same commentators do not have enough words to describe the paralysis, the impossibility of governing, the political crisis, the end of the Republic… But finally! What is this generalized hysteria?
The National Assembly resembles France: fragmented, divided between a strong center and increasing extremes. If the rise of the left, artificially united under the Nupes banner, is a trompe-l’oeil victory and looks more like a swan song, if Jean-Luc Mélenchon can wait a long time for the phone call that will make him Premier Minister, the victory of the National Rally is a reality. For the first time since 1986, at the time of an ephemeral proportionality, a far-right party not only has a group but becomes the first opposition party. If Emmanuel Macron lost where he sinned, his arrogance and his odious opportunism, if Jean-Luc Mélenchon lost just as much where he sinned, noise and fury, Marine le Pen won by his vice: the laziness. She did not campaign. Perhaps this is the secret of her victory: by being less present on the national scene, she avoided blunders – just like her candidates.
The lamentable spectacle of chaos at the Stade de France and above all the denial of the government and Emmanuel Macron did the rest: we still do not measure how much security concerns the disadvantaged. Marine Le Pen’s watchword to her deputies is clear: no waves, no shouting, ties for men and proper attire required for all. The National Rally is done with demonization, perfectly completed, long live the institutionalization of a party that is getting closer and closer to the RPR.
Opposite, the deputies of La France insoumise still promise noise and fury: they will shake the walls of the Assembly, bang on the desks, prevent speeches, block laws, refuse the democratic game… In summary, the brats are going to fuck up the mess. And we still wonder why citizens are turning away from the ballot box? We are still wondering about the weariness, even the shame of the citizens in the face of the lamentable spectacle given by the politicians? And above all, the left as a whole is still wondering why the RN? Seriously ? Is it possible that asking MPs to think more about the destiny of France than about their own careers is considered madness? And that the commentators who risk it are heard asking if they haven’t smoked too many drugs?
The Constitution written for a relative majority
What remains incomprehensible are the reactions to this new Parliament which has not yet sat at the time of writing these lines. We know. We know the deadlock, the crisis, the end of a stillborn mandate. Is there anyone to recall that the Constitution of the V was written for a relative majority? That de Gaulle did not have an absolute majority and that he had to use what democracy is to govern: the art of compromise? By dint of having promoted ignorance as a virtue against the decadent elites, by dint of having scorned healthy disputes in order to achieve a real convergence of views for the public good, here is where we are: hysteria instead and place of political conversation.
Almost all European countries govern on the basis of a compromise. I will be told, dear readers, that French culture prevents the German model. This is what is called essentialization: the French therefore do not know how to genetically sit around a table to draw a better future.
“As we advance in life, we realize that the rarest courage is that of thinking”, wrote Anatole France. The only question to ask today is this: do we still have a bit of courage to offer France the possibility of a common future?