On the left, a burst of intellectual “fever” after the broadcast of the Canal+ series

Four days after the final episode of “La Fièvre”, the Jean-Jaurès Foundation published a collection on the “political teachings” of Éric Benzekri’s series. Thirty signatures whose reactivity reveals the impact of this fiction on the psyche of the left.

Pwriters, communicators and even former ministers… Thirty authors to examine a TV series the day after its broadcast: on the part of a think tank like the Jean-Jaurès Foundation, close to the Socialist Party, the approach is unprecedented. The result ? Often relevant, sometimes redundant, revealing the moods of a groggy social-democrat left. The muscular cortexes of this Areopagus, where the writer and political advisor Giuliano da Empoli, the seriphile philosopher Sandra Laugier and the former Minister of Culture Aurélie Filippetti rub shoulders, compete to analyze how the screenwriter Éric Benzekri diagnoses, prophesies or fantasizes ( it depends) “archipelization” of our company in Fever. However, what jumps out at you between the hotly written lines are above all the affects, from worry to morbid excitement, from the feeling of helplessness to bursts of hope. “ We all felt the series like a slap in the face “, readily admits communicator Raphaël Llorca, who launched the project following a preview of the series at the end of February, and coordinated its production in the space of a few weeks.

As an afterword, we are struck by the admission of the former Prime Minister of François Hollande, Jean-Marc Ayrault, frozen with fear when facing Marie Kinsky, the populist stand-up artist played by Ana Girardot, the obsolescence of politics as he had known it. Doctor Benzekri presses where it hurts. He also provides a remedy in the person of Sam Berger, the republican heroine, fragile but combative, with whom all the contributors seem to identify. Remotivated by this brotherly figure (she knows depression) and flattering (she is HPI), everyone underlines their strong values ​​and outlines their horizons – a little blurry: “ revitalize politics » (MP Arthur Delaporte), “ protect the Republic » (the mayor of Nantes Johanna Rolland), “collective commitment” (former secretary general of the CFDT Laurent Berger), “ the integration of sport as a cultural object » (economist Pierre Rondeau)…

We may find it confusing that it takes a TV series to blow on the embers of left-wing energies. Mirage of storytelling? Raphaël Llorca believes that the detour via this ultra-contemporary form allows, on the contrary, a return to reality. By condensing and ordering a set of scattered phenomena, Fever would restore order to chaos, to the point that Giuliano da Empoli sees “a major political act”. This is perhaps neglecting the irrational part specific to creation… The sociologist Laurence de Nervaux takes care to counterbalance by pointing out “the illusion of polarization » carried by the series, when the director of the Society and Consumption Observatory (ObSoCo), Guénaëlle Gault, warns against “identity hypochondria”. Without going, like Daniel Schneidermann in the pages of Release, to the point of suspecting this Canal+ production of playing into the hands of its president Vincent Bolloré by throwing fuel on the fire…

“ There is something dizzying about seeing a series on polarization being broadcast on the channel of someone who participates in this polarization,” recognizes Raphaël Llorca, who says he regrets that she was not broadcast on the public service. But if Fever demonstrates the difficulty of operating outside the system, in his eyes it retains educational virtues. It remains to be seen whether, since its encrypted window, the series will have inflamed the French as much as it has enthralled the media-political microcosm. Consultant Renaud Large predicts great unifying success, which would bring together young bobos and aging socio-republicans. While we are pleased that it has stimulated left-wing thinkers, we are entitled to find it very optimistic. Only audience figures, still confidential, will be able to say if Fever has infected us all.