Guest on the Public Sénat morning show this Friday, essayist and Sciences Po lecturer David Djaïz delivers his analysis of the unprecedented political situation in which France finds itself.
Michel Barnier, a “legitimate” Prime Minister who must “go beyond his political base”
Asked about Emmanuel Macron’s choice to appoint Michel Barnier, a member of the Republicans, to Matignon, David Djaïz replied that he would “not have made this political choice”. “Michel Barnier comes from a political party that is the fifth group in the National Assembly and which did not participate in the Republican Front, which was nevertheless an essential component of the second round of the legislative elections”, he explained. However, he does not see Michel Barnier as an illegitimate Prime Minister. “If he is not censored by the National Assembly, then he is a legitimate Prime Minister, the question is rather what is his political base”, he analyses. A political base that he describes as “very narrow” and that he calls on the new occupant of Matignon to “overcome”.
“When you start to refuse dialogue a priori, you enter into a form of populism which is not good.”
With Michel Barnier’s government expected next week, the main question that arises is the political colour of its members. While the LR validated their participation in the government this week, the Socialist Party vetoed it. Its leaders recently refused to meet Michel Barnier, unlike the communists, who accepted his invitation. A choice on the part of the PS that David Djaïz judges severely: “Refusing a priori to meet the Prime Minister is, for me, a political error. Discussing with a Prime Minister, when you are the head of a party or parliamentary group, is the regular practice of institutions. When you start refusing dialogue a priori, you enter into a form of populism that is not good.”
This is not the only decision of the PS that he regrets. He considers that the debates that took place internally in the party with the rose hindered the nomination of Bernard Cazeneuve to Matignon. “I am not saying that they are responsible for his non-nomination, but at the very least their lukewarmness did not help and did not contribute to his nomination,” he explains. An accusation that the PS leadership defends itself against, explaining that Emmanuel Macron had never seriously considered the nomination of the former socialist to Matignon.
The New Popular Front: an “electoral cartel”
The essayist, who was close to the Socialist Party, also has a harsh judgment on the New Popular Front, which he describes as an “electoral cartel”. “There are very few intellectual common points between France Insoumise on the one hand, which has a very authoritarian culture, a very conflictual method, a very anti-capitalist vision, and the social democrats, who are on a completely different political equation. These political forces have come together in a unity of electoral action to prevent the victory of the National Rally. For me, this political equation has no future”, he judges. David Djaïz advocates the creation of a “truly social-democratic political offer that integrates ecology, a new discourse on democracy, on humanism and on Europe”.
“We are not condemned to the fatality of Bonapartism”
In the changes he hopes to see to emerge from the political crisis the country has been in since Emmanuel Macron announced its dissolution, David Djaïz calls for a change in political culture. “We are not condemned to the inevitability of Bonapartism, Caesarism, political immaturity, the inability to compromise, or the love of conflict,” he denounces. To do this, there is no need to change the Constitution, which he considers “fairly flexible.” Like many parties on all sides of the political spectrum, the essayist advocates for the introduction of proportional representation. “This allows political parties to present themselves under their colors and to assume their ideas, without being obliged to place themselves under the hegemony of another, as was the case for the left,” he explains. For him, proportional representation allows a plurality of ideas to live and thus facilitates dialogue and coalitions.
“If you want to be the guarantor of the unity of the nation, you must not be a clan leader”
Another of the solutions advocated by David Djaïz to get out of the current political crisis concerns the place that the President of the Republic takes in French political life. He advocates a rebalancing of the relationship between the President and the Prime Minister. “Since the introduction of the five-year term, Presidents have become hyper Prime Ministers, they make too many micro-decisions,” he explains, “the President of the Republic must take a step back, have a strategic vision. If you want to be the guarantor of the unity of the nation, you must not be a clan leader, a camp leader.” A change in practice initiated since the appointment of Michel Barnier and the “demanding cooperation” that is said to have been established between the Elysée and Matignon?
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