"I'm sad and I think a lot about my father, who died when I was 25. I think he'd be turning over in his grave – even though his ashes are in the ocean – because he always thought that far-right ideas were harmful to humanity. It makes me want to swim in the Bay of Lancieux, in the Côtes-d'Armor [in Brittany], to feel like I'm standing next to him. Maybe that would be a consolation, even if I'm not very optimistic. I'm frightened, even. For me, the idea of the 'Great Replacement,' put forward by the Rassemblement National [RN, far right] and many other parties around the world is a resurgence of what happened during the Second World War. After the Holocaust, there was this phrase: 'Never again.' But once a concept, however despicable, exists, it can be repeated.
It's become an obsession. I look at the news feeds, I fall asleep at 2 or 3 in the morning. During the day, I'm tired. My political anxiety is added to my workload and family tensions with a rather difficult teenager. I post a lot on Facebook, thinking that it might reach one or two people. I also talk to people close to me but I don't have many people to convince: We all think pretty much the same, we vote for the Nouveau Front Populaire [a left-wing coalition]. The only one who has ostensibly voted RN, in Brittany, for a long time, is the son of my mother's best friend. He has no money problems but he's not very happy. There's a bitterness about him that I've never been able to fight. The conversation is tough, we both know we won't convince each other but I can't help telling him he's bullshitting.
In fact, we should take our little pilgrim's bag and go on a tour of France to talk humanely with all those who believe that their problems come from immigrants. Yesterday, my partner and I were joking that RN voters from areas where immigration is very low should do a two-month internship in Paris to see that living together isn't hell!
I know we shouldn't give up but the defeat is already here. In 2002, when [far-right candidate] Jean-Marie Le Pen reached the second round of the presidential election, there was a brotherly tidal wave to unite against him. On June 15, when I went to the first demonstration after the result of the European elections, there were fewer people in the streets. I have the feeling that many people would make do with the far right in power.
To forget the cacophony of the debate between [Prime Minister Gabriel] Attal, [RN President Jordan] Bardella and [left-wing MP Manuel] Bompard, I rewatched the between-the-tours debate between [François] Mitterrand and [Jacques] Chirac [during the 1988 presidential election], which my brother-in-law sent me. I had the impression that the video was playing in slow motion, it was so quiet. They're listening to each other, speaking one after the other, but it's not without its harshness. There's a real discussion, it's quite deep, you really have time to grasp all the words which isn't the case today.
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