One of the strangest French elections of modern times is taking place today in the Hexagon, the country of the Enlightenment and the world’s fifth-largest economy. Elections held against a backdrop of constantly growing uncertainty about the country’s future, its economy and, above all, the living conditions of its people. The year 2017 is now more than 30 years removed from the Trente Glorieuses, the “Glorious Thirty”, the three decades between 1945 and 1975 when prosperity characterised political and economic developments in the largest country in Western Europe. The “magical solutions” of the past no longer exist, and the French people must find a way forward.
France is a country that was once a genuine economic superpower and, above all, the world’s dominant international cultural centre. It was home to every kind of idea and intellectual spirit, from every continent, finding primarily in its capital, Paris, the space in which to develop their talents and thinking. Today, however, this is no longer the case. France is increasingly withdrawing into itself, rejecting its past and its uniqueness, almost feeling ashamed of them and developing an inferiority complex towards its own heritage.
For the first time in History, a banker has become President of the French Republic. A golden boy, with no roots among ordinary people, raised in the test tubes of stock exchanges and banks, takes the reins of a heavy vehicle carrying one of the most remarkable civilisations humanity has ever known. It resembles a disease, it is paradoxical and disturbing, but in any case, it is historic.
How did we get here? Why is the country that enlightened the world with new, progressive ideas and philosophical thinking about the evolution of human life in accordance with the development of technological means now looking backwards into the past? If you want to find an answer, you must go back many years and consider two fundamental factors in France’s relatively recent history.
The Destroyer of a Civilisation: General de Gaulle
The first factor is a name: Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle was a military man who fled to the United Kingdom when northern France was occupied by Nazi Germany. Yet, surprise, surprise, a fugitive became a national hero at the end of the Second World War and, a few years later, President of the French Republic. De Gaulle was the man who gave France its modern-day complex. He managed to turn the peoples of numerous former colonies into genuine enemies of France, and he also managed to make France retreat into its shell for the first time in History. Until the Second World War, Paris had been an international centre of thought, the arts, economic activity and much more. De Gaulle was the first to introduce the idea of a country imprisoned within its borders and traditions, placing everything progressive in the enemy camp. That is why de Gaulle was also the President who found himself confronted by a large section of the French population, particularly the working class and intellectuals, with May 1968 remaining to this day a landmark in the popular struggles of the 20th century.
But de Gaulle also had many supporters, capable of reconciling virtually any personal political belief with their admiration for the General. Thus, his presence in History was enough to destroy ideological clarity across the entire political spectrum, creating left-wing Gaullists, right-wing Gaullists, centrist Gaullists and every other kind of Gaullist imaginable, even people who describe themselves as communist Gaullists. The poison of transforming an international centre into an insignificant country was already flowing through the veins of the French people, and a great History, which had begun with the Enlightenment, was preparing to die.
The Destroyer of Progressive Ideas: The French Communist Party
The second factor is the evolution of the French Communist Party. The legendary PCF is one of the reasons why everything progressive is considered a source of evil, even in France today. Possessing enormous strength and even greater influence among the French people, at a time when anything French and communist was viewed favourably across Europe, with the existence of the USSR playing a major role in this perception and the wars waged by the United States in various parts of the world reinforcing the same tendency, the PCF was regarded as the guarantor of progress and prosperity on behalf of the people.
The PCF did indeed play a highly significant role in improving people’s living standards and working conditions, standing at the forefront of social struggles that achieved numerous victories for the working class and the broader popular strata. Yet the PCF left these achievements in the hands of the social democrats, who developed a destructive machinery of corruption and unchecked abuses, ultimately bringing everything progressive into disrepute. Trade unions became synonymous with laziness, while extremely important rights, such as unemployment benefits, were exploited in counterproductive and outrageous ways. Thus, the PCF effectively contributed to discrediting the very heart of the changes that had brought prosperity to ordinary people, helping to create a “national complex” against decent working conditions, satisfactory incomes, public social security, protection against dismissals and much more. Furthermore, the decline of a society and an economy, which led people to believe that their own achievements and rights were the source of that decline, gave rise to a self-destructive morality.
The PCF also demolished the last protective wall, the defence it had maintained against a ruling class determined to take everything back. Following the overthrow of the socialist systems in Europe, it became a party that very quickly assumed the role of prosecutor when it came to the history of those countries, leaving the field open for the development of extreme anti-communism in France.
The Consequences Are Visible Today
These two factors contributed to pushing political thought in France towards the ultraviolet end of the political spectrum. If the ideas of the Enlightenment represent the visible spectrum, the filters that systematically polarised and concealed its progressive component have left the people with a limited number of available choices, all remarkably similar, conservative and alien to the very nature of French culture.
Today, a bank-bred golden boy is regarded as a “centrist”, even an “anti-establishment” President, despite having received public support from figures including the former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund and organisations representing industrialists, and despite having already served as a minister in the most hated government, whose Prime Minister publicly called on people to vote for him.
Today, a political descendant of fascism is gaining ever greater strength and increasing chances of being elected President, defending ideas that seem profoundly alien to French history, yet have been nourished since the years of de Gaulle.
Today, a social democrat who voted in favour of imperialist interventions in foreign countries is considered “far-left”, enjoying the support of the PCF and even facing accusations from his opponents of being a “communist”. Of course, even if Marx himself were alive, he could never be sufficiently far to the left to satisfy the political perspective served up by the French media.
The End Before a New Beginning?
The question raised by this situation is whether we are ultimately witnessing the end of a great country, almost an ideal, that enlightened humanity for approximately two centuries. It is more than evident that France, as we knew it from the history books, is dead, and the question is whether the material conditions exist for its rebirth. History usually answers such questions in the affirmative, but the people must understand their own place within it. Thus, the question is not whether, but when this transformation, this return to normality for a great country, will take place. It will be a beautiful tricolour day, and people from all over the world, inspired by the ideals of this magnificent civilisation, will joyfully sing “le jour de gloire est arrivé”.
