World News: French Political Dignity Abandoned for Recklessness

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Category: World News - Europe

Published on Monday, 05 June 2023 13:30

Written by Olivier Longhi

French politics is facing a crisis of political decorum as the recent succession of verbal or physical attacks, by several elected officials, testifies to the increasing loss of the natural authority and political dignity inspired by the Republic.

If there are signals that warn about the crisis of legitimacy that our democracy is going through, they are those that have been launched by the various attacks recently suffered by various elected officials, verbal, or physical attacks.

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While some extremist political groups contribute strongly, so does the collapse of pillars such as schools or meritocracy. Often committed against elected officials close to the majority or without labels, these attacks are intended to witness a growing mistrust in the public representation of a community, whatever it may be, municipal, national, or regional carried by groups or individuals ideologically suspicious or openly enemies of the Republic.

But after this observation, it is necessary to wonder about the follow-up to be given, apart from the judicial consequences. Restoring the authority of the Republic in a nation today plagued by political doubt is a challenge in a country that since 1875, except for the parenthesis of 1940 - 1944, has always entrusted its destiny to the republican model.

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The Pigeon and the Crisis

Some would argue that the Republic is certainly sick especially in view of the low turnout in the various elections. However, is this weakness not due more to the quality of the political and ideological offer than to the legal framework that the Republic represents?

A reality is therefore obvious: the Republic, the supreme authority of a representative democracy such as that practiced in France no longer has the sacred character that history has attributed to it. Because erected as an unalterable superior model and the only one able to ensure the happiness of those who have devoted themselves to it.

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The Republic has not always been as respected as many might argue. The interwar period, marked by the rise of far-right movements, left these same movements the space to denounce the Pigeon, this business-minded and corrupt Republic, whose loss they wanted. However, it would be meaningless to seek any analogy with the upheavals that the Fifth Republic is going through, jolts born of a form of incongruity that represents itself this regime given birth in the pain of another crisis linked to the stalemate of the Algerian War in 1958.

Meritocracy and Mediocrity

Fanned by provocateurs evolving in the far-right movement feeding on the protest resulting from the pension reform, the current malaise that grips our Republic, much deeper, is also to be found in the evolution of our society.

With a clear and proven decline in the weight of the School, with the trivialization of the meritocratic principle (certainly most questionable in its historical and societal reality), with the emergence of mediocrity in mode of operation to the detriment of excellence, the republican principles that were based on the first two elements, school and meritocracy, have been gradually eroded in favor of a cultural impoverishment because more attractive, easier to access and necessarily more flexible.

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A legal framework demanding in its understanding and without its practice, empowering in its democratic implementation, the Republic has therefore gradually been attacked as considered too heavy to bear for some and this by ignorance, incompetence, refusal of the natural altruism that the republican ideal supposes, or even all of these elements.

The road to Damascus, if one can dare this mystical image in a republican environment, promises to be long in order to rehabilitate republican principles and a republican framework for the moment more criticized than praised. And for good reason.

Bio: Olivier Longhi has extensive experience in European history. A seasoned journalist with fifteen years of experience, he is currently professor of history and geography in the Toulouse region of France. He has held a variety of publishing positions, including Head of Agency and Chief of Publishing. A journalist, recognized blogger, editor, and editorial project manager, he has trained and managed editorial teams, worked as a journalist for various local radio stations, a press and publishing consultant, and a communications consultant.