Patrice Franceschi is a committed man. On many fronts. From the Amazon to Syrian Kurdistan, this tireless globetrotter has made the planet his home and the minorities fighting for an ideal of freedom his allies. By the time he was a teenager, this son of a paratrooper officer was already keen to discover the world. He began his first journeys. Destination French Guiana, then Brazil. At the age of 20, it was the Congo, where he set off on an expedition to visit the Pygmies, refugees in the heart of a vast and cruel jungle. It will shape his soul and make him want to prolong the adventure. He then travelled through the Egyptian desert, along the Nile from its source, then to the Himalayas, working with boat people… That was his debut. Ten books would not be enough to tell the story of his life. So we’d rather stop there, to whet the appetite of those who are curious to find out what happens next. Patrice Franceschi deserves it. For it cannot be said often enough: to read it is to travel through a history of the world.

In reality, Patrice Franceschi is a character you would think had stepped out of a Kessel novel. An idealist and humanist with a temperament forged from stainless steel, who sees risk and commitment as the only way to live, and above all to leave one day without regret. Basically, Franceschi is the embodiment of what France does best: a successful blend of Hugo, Monfreid and Chateaubriand. Those who doubt this would be well advised to immerse themselves in his works, a veritable treasure trove of reflection on humanity as well as courage.

Patrice Franceschi has seen the world. Because he has rubbed shoulders with heroes, desperadoes and all sorts of powerful people, he has analysed and dissected it from every angle. He understands it better than many of our experts.

For “Croire et agir”, the adventurous philosopher has chosen the form of a manifesto that takes us to the shores of an entirely new Civilisational Europe. Over the pages, he contrasts the current European Union, which he considers to be failing – because it is built on the economy – with a federal project for a United States of Europe built on primarily political foundations. From the very first pages, he makes a strong statement: “The future of Europe is too important to be left in the hands of political professionals alone. An examination of their often-contradictory speeches and actions suggests that they can hardly be counted on to put on the agenda a collective project capable of bringing together the peoples making up this old Europe”.

Patrice Franceschi knows what he’s talking about, having spent his life setting up expeditions around the world with the support of experienced teams: doing things wrong and naming things wrong is a recipe for disaster.

He also warns against the habit that European homo politicus has of denying reality by not facing up to the truth. And against the mania for defying the sacred, or even making a mockery of it, simply because it doesn’t fit in with the zeitgeist.

On the contrary, he explains, you have to be ready, more than ever, to defend causes, to die for them. He rightly points to cultural Europe and the need to map the “shifting sands” that are undermining it. Starting with standards, which threaten individual freedoms as much as the entrepreneurial spirit. He also warns against those who confuse human progress with technological progress. “Since the dawn of time, we have been conditioned by a simple equation: novelty = progress. Anything new is good on principle. For a very long time, this equation was broadly valid and not open to debate. We were making parallel progress in both areas, with the invention of the printing press leading to the invention of human rights, and the birth of electricity leading to the birth of democracy” And to quote Hannah Arendt: “Nothing is taken for granted any more (…) the progress of science has ceased to coincide with that of humanity”.

While he underlines what we all know, namely the disconnect between the words and deeds of our elites, and their renunciation of the spirit of the Enlightenment, Patrice Franceschi remains firmly convinced that nothing great can be achieved if political generosity and courage are lacking.

As a man of challenges, he proposes to break taboos and tackle the society of generalised surveillance and transhumanism that threaten humanity. Finally, he calls on democracy to have the courage to challenge Islamism.

To achieve this, the federal state of the United States of Europe must affirm a cultural homogeneity “derived from the civilisational identity of Europe to better ensure its overall cohesion while at the same time giving expression to local, regional and national identities”.

We can only agree with him. Especially as his book, far from being yet another empty political programme, invites us to assert ourselves in the face of the new totalitarianisms that threaten us.

With “Croire et Agir”, Patrice Franceschi delivers a manual of political philosophy as well as combat, in which he invites the younger generation to take collective action: “At a time when a whole generation of young people is searching for meaning, we need to tell them that there are collective goals big enough to be worth living for, in other words, risking everything, even when things seem uncertain, unattainable or impossible.”
These are serious enough times to justify our determination to “turn the tables” for good, to stop settling for half-measures and to embark on a grand project for the future. Adherence to a collective goal is what can give meaning to our individual lives. The rest is detail. What do we have to fear? Nothing. What have we got to lose? Everything. ”

A must-read!

– Croire et agir, Pour en finir avec l’impuissance européenne, Patrice Franceschi, Plon, 2024.