You have the feeling that everything has been tried, that the parties that have come to power over the decades have failed to prevent what you call the country’s decline. You’re suffering from insecurity, from what you see as the excessive presence of foreigners, and you can’t stand the arrogance of today’s leaders and the weakness of those of yesterday. You think it’s time to give a try to the only party that has never yet held power, and which you feel is unfairly referred to as “far-right”.
Some of you are workers, shopkeepers, farmers, executives and teachers. Some of you are also company directors or high-flying financiers.
What unites you, deep down, is the feeling that France is no longer France, that it has been perverted by what is not its deepest identity, which can be summed up in a faith, a history, a territory. It’s also anger at all those who seem to you to be parvenus, impostors, who seek only to enrich themselves at the expense of the little people, and who, according to you, have taken all the positions, or aspire to do so.
And, more than anything else, what unites you is your anger at all those who, in your opinion, are intent on deviating from the French identity, by tolerating other languages, other cultures, other customs, other ways of dressing and believing. Worse still, you think that these people will want to impose their customs and faith on you and your children in France, replacing the French identity with one from our former colonies.
If all this were true, I’d be just as angry as you are, and I’d fight alongside you. But I don’t think it’s true.
I won’t try to convince you with statistics or polemics. I’ll just use a little reasoning. By trying to empathize with you.
France is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. It is the envy of the world. It has one of the best social protection systems in the world, and one of the best road, rail and university infrastructures. It is at the cutting edge in a large number of forward-looking sectors, from space to biogenetics, from artificial intelligence to quantum computing. It receives the highest number of tourists in the world, and the highest number of foreign investments in Europe. Unemployment is at an all-time low. It’s easier than ever to invent, to start a business, and hundreds of thousands of young French people do so every year. France is considered by foreigners to be one of the happiest countries in the world, hated only by its inhabitants.
It also has the world’s best system for integrating foreigners; in fact, it’s named after a foreign people. It was built by integrating foreign peoples, from the Franks to the Arvernes, from the Burgundians to the Bretons, who came with their territories, more or less voluntarily; then others, who chose to come to France, leaving everything behind: Poles, Italians, North Africans, Christians, Jews, Muslims, almost all of whom have become French citizens of the highest quality; who contribute enormously to those who were there before them; who, before themselves gaining access to the finest studies, are willing to carry out the tasks that many long-standing French citizens no longer want to do; and, who, through their contributions, finance the pensions of all, condemned to become derisory without them.
Of course, there are exceptions, representing no more than one or two percent of the total number of these foreigners, and even less of their children; in particular, thanks to the construction over more than a hundred years of a system that is unique in the world, and incredibly protective of our identity: secularism, and all the laws that have specified it, from 1905 to 2024, including that of 2004.
Finally, at a time when so many geopolitical and ecological challenges lie ahead, would it be reasonable to entrust power to a party that has so far largely taken its orders from Moscow, that wants to put an end to a large proportion of our renewable energies and encourage us to continue using the most polluting cars? And who wants to start distinguishing between those who would be good citizens and others? No, obviously.
Of course, much remains to be done. To better integrate the foreigners we need, to punish those who break the law, to give everyone a better chance, to reduce injustice, to renew a political staff that’s out of breath. This will not be done with fear or nostalgia. We won’t go back to the France of the past. It was much worse than the one we’re about to see. The darkest periods of its history have always occurred when it began to regret its past. Vote against power, if you like; I understand. But don’t vote against yourself.
France has only ever been great when it has looked ahead to its future.
j@attali.com
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