© Ludovic Marin
President Macron in the program “France facing war”, on TF1, March 14, 2022.
Yes, there is war. But there also happens to be a presidential campaign. Whose business this situation is, is pretty clear to everyone. A re-election without a campaign, what a rich idea. A campaign canceled by force majeure, what providence. We had understood that Macron had as his ideal the renewal of his mandate by tacit agreement. That there would be a war and he would use it with the last degree of opportunistic hypocrisy we might hardly see coming. Historical experience teaches us enough that a state of war welds a country together for the less or for the worse – that is to say, produces an effect on public debate comparable to that of a digger on a flowerbed. We no longer talk regarding anything else, and we only talk regarding it to say the same thing.
But a campaign is a time when – in theory… – all the other things come back to the agenda, and with them their load of dissensus. That they were so radically driven out of it is a shockingly anomalous situation. It is all the more so since we can see enough in what state of demolition the five-year term has left the country, and if there is one thing that the candidate-by-tacit-renewal has not hidden, it is his “Projeeeet” to continue for worse. As Bourdieu had pointed out very generally with regard to neoliberalism, there is in Macronism a fanatical desire to destroy all collective structures, in particular public services, and even the “State of public policies” by cabinets intervening advice.
A violent anti-social policy
The reality following five years of macronism is that the hospital is in ruins, justice is in ruins, the school is in ruins, civil liberties are in ruins, the great cause of feminism is a joke, Make Our Planet Great Gain is a huge joke – but the police are all-powerful and digital surveillance is passing Orwellian milestones. The reality of five years of macronism is that we have never known such a violent anti-social policy, so outrageously occupied with the rich, so relentless in despising those who are not. Macronism will have made us discover the yellow vests who make a meal every two days, the students at the soup kitchen, the parents of deceased children whose days off “penalize companies”, the search for employment by crossing the street, the denial of unemployment insurance transformed into a rod to put individuals at the mercy of employers – and lies and violence erected into ordinary means of government.
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Emmanuel Macron is so satisfied with it that he intends to prolong everything and make everything worse – we understand that in his mind there is no need to discuss it since on the menu there is only the same more. For all those on whom this “same” is going to fall, on the other hand, we would like to be able to talk regarding it a little: massacre of pensions, demolition of the university, continuation of tax gifts to companies, abandonment of employees to the wave of inflation where neither capital nor the government will drop more than a few crumbs on the minimum wage or on the point, silent deepening of the desertification of rural areas by “rationalization” (closures, regroupings, public services).
The democracy of confiscation
Having entered the campaign as late as possible, having brought forward the date of the first round as soon as possible, a fan of “debates” but only in front of carefully composed audiences, a promoter of citizens’ conventions to which he listens nothing, we know what type of “Democracy” is the favor of the candidate: the democracy of confiscation, made up of defense counsel, exceptional procedures, restricted cabinets, cloaked majorities and interviews of convenience. All this which had already been particularly odious for five years, becomes inadmissible in the electoral campaign.
Only the ideology of the institutions can make people believe that elections are periods of high politics and “debate”. Passed through the media mill, they are rather machines to neutralize and entertain. Even before Ukraine, the Ehpad scandal should have put the whole debate head over heels by exposing the type of society of which Macronism, despite its denials, is the most complete incarnation – and nothing. Meanwhile, IPCC report – and nothing. We can have no illusions, but we can’t resign ourselves either to the evasion of everything taking on such colossal proportions. This power, challenged like none, will have used and abused “democratic” calls to patiently wait for the elections to express dissent “with a ballot”. Now the ballot is coming… and the campaign is hidden from under our feet. Behind the strategy of “tacit renewal”, there are in the head of the renewed images of motorways oropen bar. Don’t let him. He hides? #OnGoLeChercher. #NoDebateNoMandate.
Signatories: Bruno Amable Economist, Joseph Andras Writer, Ariane Ascaride Actress, Ludivine Bantigny historian, teacher, Eva Barto Artist, Allan Barte Designer, Loriane Bellhasen Psychiatrist, Mathieu Bellhasen Psychiatrist, Laurent Binet Writer, Stephane Brize Director, Olivier Cadiot Writer, Aurelien Catin Writer, Francois Cusset historian of ideas, Laurence De Cock historian, teacher, Caroline De Haas feminist activist, David Dufresne Writer, director, Dominique Dupart Writer, professor of literature, Annie Ernaux Writer, Francois Geze Editor, Robert Guédiguian Director, Adele Haenel Actress, Chantal Jaquet Philosopher, Razmig Keucheyan Sociologist, Stathis Kouvelakis Philosopher, Mathilde Larrère Historian, Jean Jacques Lecircle Linguist, Frederic Lordon Philosopher, Sandra Lucbert Writer, Arnaud Maisetti Writer, Xavier Mathieu actor, activist, Guillaume Mazeau History, Daniel Mermet Journalist, Jacques-Henri Michot Writer, Olivier Neveux Philosopher, Ugo Palheta Sociologist, Willy Pelletier Sociologist, Fred Sochard Designer, Barbara Stiegler Philosopher, Julien Thery History, Nicolas Vieillescazes Editor, Gisele Vienna Choreographer, Alice Zeniter Writer.
