As he wrote on his X account (ex-Twitter) last Thursday May 2, “there are no irreconcilable lefts. But there is the sectarianism, the personal ambitions, the hubris, the stupidity of certain people, which give the impression that the left are ‘irreconcilable’”. A tweet in reaction to the forced exfiltration of the head of the socialist list in the European elections, Raphaël Glucksmann, banned from access, by left-wing activists, to a May 1 demonstration in Saint-Etienne. There would therefore be no irreconcilable lefts but only ego wars, according to Philippe Marlière, political scientist and professor of French and European politics at University College London, who has just co-authored a book on the subject.
A book in the form of open letters
This book, co-written with Philippe Corcuff, professor of political science at the Lyon Institute of Political Studies and published on April 3 by Editions Textuel, “is a cry of alarm” in front of the state of disrepair of “THE” left. The work, called The Tonton Gunslingers of the left – in a nod to the famous film by Georges Lautner – analyzes in an original way the reasons for the current disrepair of the French left, mired in an unprecedented crisis.
The two authors thus address, in the form of open letters, to six political actors, chosen because they represent, underlines Philippe Marlière, “different problematic sensitivities of the left”. Among them, the former president of the Socialist Republic François Hollande, the former presidential candidate La France Insoumise (LFI) Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the NUPES deputy François Ruffin, the leader of the communist party Fabien Roussel, philosopher “from the left” Michel Onfray and finally the current president Emmanuel Macron. This last choice could surprise more than one person, recognizes Philippe Marlière. But the politician recalls that the current head of state, before being elected, worked under the socialist presidency of François Hollande, both as secretary general of the Elysée but also as minister of the Economy.
When we point out to him that there are no women in the selection, he responds with a smile: “It’s a pretty good sign.”. He also underlines an interesting point: women, certainly more and more numerous present in the parties, sometimes by being at the head (like Marine Tondelier for the Ecologists) or by leading lists (in particular for Europeans, with for example Manon Aubry for La France Insoumise), or even more and more numerous people occupying the political scene by leading, for example, the main French unions (Sophie Binet for the CGT, Marylise Léon for the CFDT), are nevertheless largely absent from “the mother of all elections”namely the presidential election, the most important election in the eyes of the French.
The lack of “collective identity”
But to return to the main subject, namely the current state of the French left, if it is not its first crisis, this could be the worst it has known. The reasons ? Certainly not the absence of union. “It’s not a program problem either”. No, his major problem is actually based on his credibility, believes the political scientist. “Today there is a lack of a collective identity, what we call an imagination”. Because the vote, he reminds us, is not decided only on the basis of a program, but is a matter of emotion.
If until the 1980s, the left was still imbued with this imagination, it disappeared following two major shocks which would have passed through it. “First, the end of Sovietism at the end of the 80s with the fall of the USSR, which represented the bloc against the anti-capitalist model”analyzes the politician, “then, was added the loss of support from the working class, which was transformed in the face of the rise of capitalism”. More fragmented working methods, the change in working conditions, the advance of neo-liberalism and the end of the 30 Glorieuses will therefore have had a major influence on the progressive crumbling of the left. “Even the moderate right of the 70s explained that we should not touch the welfare state, interventionism. But over the past 40 years, we have seen a gradual disengagement of the State, particularly in important areas such as health, education and transport.. A disengagement in which the left, which has not been able to reinvent its imagination since, also participated, and again recently under the presidency of François Hollande.
The loss of an authentic left-wing discourse and a gradual acceptance of ideas from the right and even the extreme right
In their book, the two co-authors also address what they call “confusionism”in other words the loss of an authentically left-wing discourse. “The leaders of the left today borrow in their remarks values long conveyed by the right and the extreme right, both anti-European and anti-American”. Which ends, according to Philippe Marlière and his colleague, in blurring the markers of the divide – however essential, they say – right/left. Among the worthy representatives of this confusionism, personalities like Jean-Luc Mélenchon or even François Ruffin, according to the authors.
The first, moreover, according to Philippe Marlière, also contributed to the failure of the union of the left because of his populist speeches. “He participates in this confusion by pitting the people against the elites he demonizes, which is a simplistic reading. However, excess feeds resentment even though democracy must above all be a collective”. If the discourse of a certain left today calls itself neo-republican – a term that has become “incantatory and obscure” -, today it would be rather tinged with the words “exclusive, racist and Islamophobic”. A trend born under the leadership of Jean-Pierre Chevènement and taken up today by Printemps Républicain. Enough to create continual tensions between the different currents of thought on the left.
If this is not the first crisis that the left is going through, does the one it is experiencing today border on the limit of the reversible? “Even after seven years of Emmanuel Macron, the left, going from the NPA to the PS, remains fragmented and only at an overall level of 30% of the vote”, explains the political scientist. Far behind the far right. Philippe Marlière hopes for a rapid reaction, hence the subject of the book he co-wrote. But the left to be reborn must be above all, “nuanced while holding firm to its values”, democratic, with a competent but also popular and unifying standard bearer. The need to bring out new faces – “why not a woman”, believes Philippe Marlière – who want to work in college is therefore urgent. The political scientist recommends that for the next three years, before the next presidential election, working sessions on what the left is today, how it can manage its diversity and make it function democratically, can be held. In the meantime, a question arises: could the next European elections galvanize the troops if the PS came out on top? “It could have an effect, but it would be at the margin,” thinks the professor.
