Emmanuel Razavi

A striking example: during a debate on Europe 1 and Cnews during the European elections on 2 June last, Valérie Hayer, the head of the presidential majority list, advised a participant who was telling her about her financial difficulties to “buy an electric car”, even though she obviously couldn’t afford one. How could Mrs Hayer not have thought for a moment about the nonsense she had just uttered? Unless she is totally stupid, the only explanation is that she has no idea how the majority of her fellow citizens live in times of crisis.

In reality, the bobo elites have failed to understand that the French have had enough of losing purchasing power and living with insecurity that has become systemic. Nor have they understood that a majority of our fellow citizens are worried that their traditions and culture are being jeopardised by wokism and the rise of Islamism. They have nothing to do with the importation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by La France insoumise and its avatar the Nouveau Front Populaire, some of whose elected representatives have no other motive than to stir up anti-Semitism and plunge the country into chaos.

One notable fact speaks volumes: according to the Ipsos polling institute, in mid-June the National Rally had 29% of pensioners and 20% of managers, whereas these two categories were more inclined to support the so-called “classic” parties.  “It’s the 30-55 age group that votes most for the RN. It’s no coincidence that it can no longer rise socially, it’s going to be frozen”, explained demographer Hervé Le Bras on LCP.

In reality, the problem with the governing parties is that for thirty years, none of their representatives has had the courage to name the problems, let alone deal with them.

Are our leaders having trouble keeping their finger on the pulse of the nation?

To understand what France is suffering from, what the malaise of its inhabitants is, all you have to do is go to the local café or weekend markets in small and medium-sized provincial towns. You can hear people getting fed up with the high cost of living, the fear of a difficult end of the month and the exasperation of a growing and increasingly outspoken delinquency.

Let’s be clear: saying or writing this does not in any way mean being populist or extreme right-wing. On the contrary, it means showing realism, a quality that most of our leaders have lacked for too long.

At the heart of a political tragedy

Macronia is lost. In fact, this has been the case from the outset, as the Head of State has turned his “at the same time” policy into a machine to disorientate the heart of our institutions. The “right-and-left” strategy eventually imploded of its own accord. It was inevitable, because a nation is governed by a clear course, not by the wind and the alliances of circumstance…

At the moment, France is in the midst of a political tragedy. Let’s face it: at the European elections, as at the legislative elections, the vote for the RN was as much a vote of support as of protest. By dissolving the National Assembly, the President of the Republic has taken the risk of bringing to the head of government the party he had sworn to abolish. It was a risky bet; it even looked like a game of Russian roulette! By acting in this way, Emmanuel Macron has shown that he has not taken the measure of the abyssal divide between the working and middle classes and the “world above”, so well described by the geographer Christophe Guilluy.

Nor has Emmanuel Macron taken the measure of the French people’s rejection of progressive multiculturalism, or of this implacable truth: the people are aware of the coming dramas that will play out in the country, starting with the housing crisis, a veritable social bomb that will add to the other sources of tension other sources of tension.

Rather than looking for a new way forward, Emmanuel Macron has preferred to practice a scorched earth strategy, while trying to unite around himself sensitivities that are incompatible by nature. And while he may be an adept at political slalom, the President of the Republic is definitely no off-piste prodigy!

By dint of having no lines, playing with the extremes, temporising with the Islamism of the Muslim Brotherhood, scorning the rule of law and defying popular fatigue, Emmanuel Macron has therefore suffered a crushing political defeat, which was predictable.

Let’s just hope it doesn’t turn into a democratic rout. We are all aware that we are entering a historic period. It’s no longer enough for the traditional parties to “cry wolf” in the face of the National Rally; no! It is up to them to renew their sense of morality and break with the blind condescension that has plunged France into uncertainty…