“The Country wants unity”

France turns a new page, it turned its back to the present government and opted for its recent past, gearing towards the right. This is a rather accurate snapshot of the results of the departmental elections that on Sunday March 29 signalled the triumph of Nicolas Sarkozy’s Party, the UMP. The President of the Republic François Hollande, along with premier Manuel Valls, admitted the defeat, while the FN of Marine Le Pen managed to keep afloat and in the limelight, although it failed to obtain the leadership of a department. In the list of the “winners” abstention ranks first, signalling the French population’s latent disaffection and lack of confidence towards the political realm on the whole. Jérôme Vignon, President of the Social Weeks in France, in an interview with Chiara Biagioni, analysed the outcomes of the ballot. President Vignon, how do you interpret these results? “Without a doubt they herald a sharp victory of the UMP-UDI alliance. I think that the awareness of the danger represented by a racist, extremist party such as the Front National of Marine Le Pen has played a major role. It’s the positive aspect of this result”. Are you saying that the right-wing vote has limited France’s drift owing to the extremism of Marine Le Pen? “We must acknowledge the political and cultural impact of FN on a large number of French citizens. It’s a nationalistic political movement that gives a voice to those who feel insecure or live in a state of precariousness. This reality is gaining grounds within the French political arena. In my opinion this phenomenon cannot be discredited. Rather, it should be known in full, for reasons that evidently have an impact on citizens. For instance, I am thinking of the middle classes in a state of poverty that have no other ways to express themselves and voice their frustrations. The Front National managed to give impetus to the claims of the man on the street. This phenomenon requires a reconsideration of political-cultural discourse”. In which way? “In my opinion a certain form of politics, which is inacceptable in a democratic system, is being called into question in France. It is widely noted that there’s a “professionalism” of political career that starts during one’s youth and continues as a life-long career … This path excludes citizens from participating in civil and political life, thereby creating a social and cultural divide between the people who feel left out and those working for the Country’s future, unable to utter something that makes sense and without realizing what’s happening in the real world. This requires a constitutional reform from a democratic perspective that may address, for example, access to politics and duration of the mandates”. Did the left lose for this reason? “Most of all, it lost because of its internal division and for not having clarified the social-economic option capable of orienting our country in the future. There is a kind of refusal to face the situation of social-democracy that includes openness to the world, its belonging to Europe, the question of rigour and recovery. Clarity, in other terms, on what they intend it to be and what they intend to do for a good economic policy, mindful of France’s current situation”. Who did Catholics vote for? “I think that practising Catholics, that are a minority, voted the right-wing. Why? Because the left endorsed libertarian theses and opted for a universalistic and individualistic vision of politics, that is not in harmony with religious identity and values. This caused a malaise in practising Catholics that inevitably pushed them to the right”. France, the elections, the terrorist threat. What is France’s challenge? “Finding itself; recovering its own unity and include and welcome universality. We yearn to embody that very fraternity that is part of our history, opening up to the new richness of our contemporary diversities. This is the major challenge that French Catholics are called to live. And it’s to the challenge of fraternity that our associations and movements will dedicate the next Social Week in 2016”.