French police officers held an unprecedented demonstration outside parliament last week to push for a law that protects law enforcement officers who are feeling vulnerable to attacks. Demonstrators were calling for a legislative text that guarantees minimum sentencing for those who assault them.
The rally by security forces represented an uncommon move for members of an institution that stresses duty and discretion. Although the protests were supposed to be apolitical, the event turned into a campaign rally for politicians. For cynical observers like myself, it was painfully obvious that politicians hoped to cast themselves as friends of law enforcement officers, a considerable voting pool.
However, the climax of the show came in when Gerald Darmanin joined the rally to show his support to the protesting officers. In a surreal moment, the ministry of interior, i.e., the head of France’s police forces declared that “every morning when I awake, every night when I sleep, I think of you [the cops],” adding that his presence at the protest was "normal" given his role as France's top cop.
As you can imagine, his presence sparked controversy and added to claims that Emmanuel Macron’s government is attempting to woo far-right voters before next year’s presidential election. Polls suggest the election will go to a second-round runoff between Macron and Marine Le Pen.
But beyond the protests, Darmanin’s political move is the latest example of the descent of French politics into a state of comical, yet dangerous insanity. Where on Earth do you see the top cop of a country joining police officers who are protesting against his own inaction?
Something is rotten in the French Republic
But let’s take a look at the big picture. Over the last few weeks, worrying events have unfolded in France:
Last April, in an open letter published in the conservative magazine Valeurs Actuelles – retired generals called onto President Emmanuel Macron to act against the looming dangers of hatred due to social tensions, religious extremism, or face a civil war-like situation in the future.
Then a month later, another open letter – this time signed by a group of serving French soldiers – was published in the same magazine. The text warned President Emmanuel Macron that the "survival" of France was at stake because of the "concessions" he made to Islamism.
Last week, thousands of police officers protested in Paris in a show of force that left politicians scrambling.
This week, Gerald Darmanin pressed charges against Audrey Pulvar, a former journalist – now a declared candidate for the head of the Île-de-France regional council – because she criticized police officers gathered outside the French parliament. In response, Audrey Pulvar has filed a complaint against Gerald Darmanin.
This is no longer politics, this is a fuc@#$% Telenovela!
To be fair, I think the fears of a coup are exaggerated. French armed forces are firmly committed to democracy, yet the appeal of soldiers points to deep rifts within the French state and French society in general. My country is exhibiting worrying symptoms of political, economic, and social decay. All the alarm bells are ringing about an impending breakdown of the social contract and the fragmentation of France’s state apparatus.
In this climate of extreme tensions, one would expect Emmanuel Macron – you know, the president of the French Republic – to come forward, calm things down, and reassert the authority of the State. So, what exactly did our president do to put out the fire?
Well, he decided that the right thing to do was to join two of France's most famous YouTubers, McFly and Carlito who have well over six million subscribers to exchange stories during a show that ended with a stroll in the Élysée gardens, where French band Ultra Vomit performed a hard rock version of the French lullaby “A Green Mouse” (“Une souris verte”). The Élysée's communications teams – many of whom used to work for communications agencies – organized the meeting with McFly and Carlito in exactly the same way they would have envisaged it for a business. Emmanuel Macron – the politician – is now a business leader like any other.
During his 2017 presidential run, Emmanuel Macron promised to “revolutionize politics.” Clearly, he did, not just the way anyone expected.
France is gradually witnessing the emergence of a culture of demagoguery that constantly appeals to the worst instincts of human nature; a culture devoid of vision. The politicians, even the honest ones, are locked in a vicious circle: their parties are failing, the mainstream media and the GAFAM control who has access to the mass audiences, and the politicians need the masses to pay at least a little attention.
Welcome to a Brave New World conceived by Big Brother
British writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley warned us of a future in which the ultimate dystopia is ushered in via constant entertainment. According to Huxley, ruling classes would learn that control of a populace could be achieved not only with the explicit use of force but also with the more covert method of drowning the masses in an endless supply of pleasurable diversions.
His friend and fellow countryman – George Orwell – took on a more somber tone in his seminal work; 1984, warning of a tyrannical dystopia where the thought police monitored everything you say and do, and through the use of doublespeak and the constriction of vocabulary successfully stripped life of all its meaning and color.
It turns out, their respective dystopic visions are neither far-fetched nor mutually exclusive. Or in the words of American journalist Chris Hedges:
“I used to wonder: Is Huxley right or is Orwell right? It turns out they’re both right. First, you get the new world state [Brave New World] and endless diversions as you are disempowered. And then, as we are watching, credit dries up, and the cheap manufactured goods of the consumer society are no longer cheap. Then you get the iron fist of Oceania, of Orwell’s 1984.
We have been very effectively pacified by the pernicious ideology of a consumer society that is centered on the cult of the self—an undiluted hedonism and narcissism. That has become a very effective way to divert our attention while the country is reconfigured into a kind of neofeudalism, with a rapacious oligarchic elite and an anemic government that no longer intercede on behalf of citizens but cravenly serves the interests of the oligarchy itself.”
If 2020 and 2021 have shown us anything, it is that the real dystopian future is likely to be a blend of a Brave New World and 1984. On the one hand, France’s ruling class is nurturing a culture of idiocy that serves its interests. On the other hand, an increasingly authoritarian state apparatus (cf. the brutal crackdown on the Yellow Vests movement) – under the guise of pandemic control – has made permanent emergency measures that severely limit the right to demonstrate and further weaken the rule of law. Dystopia is not Sci-fi – for me, it’s the French reality.
Anyway, as the curtain is closing on the moribund Fifth Republic, we can now confidently assert that French politics have descended into a state of depressing grotesquerie.