During a debate following the second round of legislative elections, Mr. Gabriel Attal gave his conception of the act of governing in an almost Dutch anaphora: according to him, a government serves to “protect against inflation”, “protect against the pandemic”, “protect against rising energy prices”, protect against this or against that and surely against oneself. Apparently, the designers of the famous EDLs (elements of language) defined the verb “protect” as the ultimate in political promise. To the point that, around the TF1 table, neither Ms. Dati nor Mr. Bardella and not even Ms. Rousseau contradicted the new definition. To govern is therefore to protect!
According to this conception, the government becomes a provider of services to individuals, a counter that is never closed even when the coffers are empty. There is no more common good, but the sum of particular rights, and still not of all, since the “rich”, the business manager, the policeman of the BAC, the white male, should not hope too much . Note, in fact, that the anaphora never includes the protection of property and people, even less of public order, a sovereign function which should be paramount and which our fellow citizens expect to be carried out. But maybe those who are disturbed by the insecurity and the daily harassments, we will give a small bonus. So is it only “purchasing power” that could make life beautiful?
Today, there is not much left in working order of this French exception. The mechanics are shaky because, in every area (without exception), the bolts have been imperceptibly allowed to loosen. Capable of the greatest things the day before yesterday, France did not take care to maintain and keep in good condition what was its strength. Worse, a few egg-headed Europeanists and leaders of the immediate have done their utmost to weaken it.
In any complex structure, it is rare for collapse to occur suddenly. This is why, having deprived themselves of what was our strength, our leaders can no longer act except by distributing the billions they do not have and by singing that the current slackness will be stopped by the ‘protective’ state. They don’t even intend to tighten the little bolts that hold the big things together. The worst could well be ahead of us, and not just at the Palais-Bourbon.
*Historian, professor at the Catholic Institute of Vendée
