I gave a great deal of thought to the title of this article, which is, in fact, the answer to a question I had been asking myself over the past few years: essentially, “What happened to France?” Eventually, I decided to give this bold answer to such a strange and unusual question. Feelings are irrelevant. There is only one truth: France, as we knew it, with all the symbolism it carried for the entire world, at least as far as political and social processes are concerned, officially no longer exists. It has been a long process, and a long period of confirmation, beginning with last year’s presidential elections. But we can now confirm that the country which enlightened the world has entered a dangerous and dark era. All of humanity has reason to mourn.
The Nation That Enlightened the World
Have you ever wondered why France, and its capital Paris, are so attractive to visitors? Have you ever considered why the Eiffel Tower exists, why there are so many museums, such extraordinary architecture, urban history, cultural legends and human-made beauty in this corner of our planet, which was once the centre of the civilisation of a species that managed to establish its dominance over it? There are only a handful of examples in the history of human civilisation that represent truly fundamental transformations. That very short list might include Ancient Athenian Democracy, Dutch Capitalism, the Industrial Revolution, the American Revolution, the Russian Revolution and, of course, everything we have come to know as France since the middle of the 18th century: a country in which intense political struggle was constantly present, shaping an identity that characterises not only its society, but also its tangible and intangible cultural heritage.
On many occasions, I used to say that France was not a country or a nation, but an ideal for humanity. Anyone attempting to approach the matter cynically will struggle to distinguish the particular characteristics of this European state from those of others. But if one thinks a little more deeply and tries to compare what makes each European society interesting, it becomes easy to discover that France is by far the most fascinating of all its neighbouring countries in terms of its social evolution, which has so often involved the word “Revolution”. France was the arena of a continuous and profound political battle. The French Revolution, one of the defining events in the history of our species, was a process marked by the clear emergence and confrontation of a new and an old political consciousness, representing the future and the past of human societies at that historical moment. The following century, the 19th, retained these same characteristics, with revolutions following one another until they reached their culmination in the extraordinarily fascinating political struggle of the Paris Commune in 1871. Finally, in the 20th century, this struggle was embodied by the famous May of ’68, when the movement, although not ideologically coherent, was nevertheless, once again, as profoundly political as it could possibly be, with ideological confrontation taking place both within its own ranks and beyond them. A politically conscious nation never fell asleep… at least until quite recently.
One can find this distinctly French spirit of political struggle expressed in a particularly powerful slogan written on the walls of Paris during the Commune. The slogan was “Mort aux voleurs” (“Death to thieves”), and it was not an expression of some particular affection for private property, but a remarkable declaration of the necessity to drive lumpen, apolitical elements out of any movement. During those days of tremendous upheaval, many people, mainly from the poorer sections of society, attempted to take advantage of the situation, stealing for their own personal benefit. Yet the broad and politically diverse movement of the Communards did not fight only against the ruling class of its time. It also treated these parasites as what they were: another enemy to be confronted.
This history created extraordinarily fertile ground for the development of a country capable of accommodating every political ideology, with a unique tolerance that, for decades and even centuries, allowed ideological refugees from across the globe to arrive, particularly in Paris. They transformed the capital into a place where political thought flourished, in turn helping modern philosophy and even scientific thinking to make enormous strides forward. This is what France represents to the rest of the world. No other country has ever enjoyed such a privilege, while simultaneously serving as a compass, an ideal for the creation of other societies by people who had been inspired by, and in many cases educated on, this exceptional ground.
The Nation That Switched Off Its Lights
I have written publicly before that, during the 20th century, particularly after the magnificent uprising of May ’68 and, above all, following the “socialist spring” of the 1980s, certain factors pushed France towards ideological and nationalist conservatism. It is no coincidence that Le Pen’s far-right party, once known as the “National Front”, began gaining popularity in the late 1980s, managed to reach the second round of the presidential elections at the beginning of the new century, and became a significant political force during the 2010s. This was the result of Gaullist nationalism and the transformation of the trade union movement, traditionally associated with the left, and of the broader popular movement.
France in our century is no longer the country capable of welcoming a Camus and a Sartre, or of giving someone like Marie Curie, arriving from another country, the opportunity to shine in the sciences, at a time when nothing comparable was happening anywhere else. In short, France is no longer exceptional. Alongside this shift of ideological confrontation towards the “ultraviolet end of the political spectrum”, the great political struggle was transformed into an “apolitical” one. There is no better evidence of this than the election of Emmanuel Macron as President of the French Republic. A politician was turned into a popular idol by the media just a few weeks before the elections, despite having previously served as a largely unpopular minister in an unsuccessful government under François Hollande. An “apolitical” movement came to power, and its principal opponent appeared to be the far right, the racism and fascism of French politics. The moment had arrived when the only answer this great nation could offer to fascism was… a banker from the City of London.
This formula of the “new”, which was in reality “older than the oldest”, was obviously doomed to fail in its supposed objective of calming the anger of a people who had watched their lives deteriorate for decades, following the Trente Glorieuses, those three decades that followed the Second World War. It seemed obvious that the “major force on the right” would become the next choice of an enraged population. Yet that far-right party proved incapable of taking on this responsibility. The fact is that even these fascist politicians, however desperately eager to seize power, can prove remarkably incompetent when the time comes to turn their destructive dreams into reality. Unfortunately, however, this immature and “apolitical” anger remained ever-present, while progressive forces proved incapable of giving it an ideological direction, having long since abandoned serious ideological struggle. History, then, repeats itself both as farce and as nightmare. Anyone who fails to read the history of the previous century and understand the anger of the petty bourgeoisie is condemned to relive it.
An “apolitical” movement emerged within a matter of weeks and gained popularity through the media. At first, it was so immature that one could only laugh at it, as it seemed little more than a joke. Yet media coverage helped it become stronger… and more dangerous to the people. An “apolitical” movement that concealed its political colours beneath a “yellow vest” occupied and almost paralysed the… roads of an entire country during the least productive hours of the week, at weekends, on the basis of one demand and one demand alone: “Stop the increase in fuel taxes.” Even a brief historical analysis is enough to reveal the nature of this demand, which has nothing to do with the struggle of the working class, but rather reflects a superficial need of the petty bourgeoisie, the consumers of capitalism who find themselves under growing economic pressure. Can you think of another petty-bourgeois movement in history that managed to seize power in powerful capitalist countries? Unfortunately, History can. And unfortunately, History repeats itself.
Within this “apolitical” movement, groups even further to the right than the “National Front” are playing their thoroughly political game remarkably well. Moreover, the movement enjoys support from virtually every political force outside government: the “left-wing” Mélenchon, Le Pen’s far-right camp and the former “socialist” President Hollande. There is nothing new about this in Europe, a continent suffering from the growing popularity of fascist parties. All those movements of the “indignant” that enjoyed favourable media coverage a few years ago harboured precisely such fringe groups, providing fascist parties with the opportunity to accumulate power, enter the institutions of government and come close to seizing political power, just as happened in the 1930s.
This account is, to say the least, deeply disappointing, and is naturally accompanied by profound pessimism, not only about France, but about the future of humanity. Yet the people taking part in the demonstrations on French streets every weekend are not all fascists, nor are they all enemies of democracy, at least no more so than the undemocratic government they are confronting. And that is precisely where the problem lies. They are so politically immature, so petty-bourgeois and so enraged that they are ready to repeat the nightmare. They will become both the authors and the actors of the drama of this new, dark chapter of history. The problem is that this is now happening in France, on the very soil that once illuminated our modern civilisation, and hope does not seem to be coming from anywhere else.
These days, this alarming situation, the shattered dream of the City of Light transformed into the City of Political Darkness, a darkness that cannot be concealed behind the fires burning along the streets of the famous Champs-Élysées, is the alarm bell that is finally ringing for all of us, wherever we may be. I can now write it plainly: that famous line from Casablanca, “We’ll always have Paris”, no longer corresponds to reality. We need to rediscover and rebuild the France that once enlightened the world, whether that happens in France itself or somewhere else. For France is dead, and now, more than ever, we need to cry out: Vive la France!
