Prime Minister François Bayrou's "migratory submersion" remarks on the LCI news channel January 27 had a double merit. The first was to dispel any false pretenses. Far from the virtues generously attributed to him – listening, the art of negotiation and a certain culture of compromise – the right and the center today are driven to their very core by the vulgate of the far right, its themes and its vocabulary, even the most extreme and misleading. We could have done without this confirmation, but such is the depth of our abjection.
The second merit of this statement is that it reminds us – as we had almost forgotten – that politics is not just about dealing with debt, retirement pensions, or even about jobs and wages. These issues, which affect the daily lives of millions of people who live and work in France, are urgent, important and legitimate. They touch on the ever-burning question of distribution of the wealth produced in the country, hence the power of the tensions they generate. However, they alone do not sum up a project for society – this is the debate we need.
And yet, for weeks and months now, the political debate has focused solely on those issues, with the obvious exception of the infamous "migratory submersion" which is submerging the French political landscape while also introducing the race for the next presidential election. And it is perfectly understandable why the right-wing parties – whatever their stripe – are satisfied with this. On the other hand, it is hard to fathom the timidity of the other political groupings on a number of major issues which, although they deserve urgent action, seem to have been written off.
Public debate stifled
To take just one example, the state of our liberties should cause a great deal of concern. Our country, like others in Europe, is experiencing a rapid and brutal phenomenon identified as a "narrowing of civic space." This inferno affably appears under the best of intentions. Here, the aim is to combat Islamic terrorism; there, to fight anti-Semitism; to defend the values of the Republic; or to combat drug trafficking. These seemingly honorable objectives are all the harder to criticize because they are presented as a "cultural war" to be waged against all kinds of "submersions."
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