” “An appeal to participation

On 21 April and 5 May 2002, the French will vote to elect their President of the Republic who will remain in office for five years; on 9 and 16 June they will vote in the legislative elections. The French are disillusioned and disinterested. The announcement that Jacques Chirac, current President of the French Republic, is going to run again for the post, as also is his prime minister, Lionel Jospin, has signalled the beginning of the presidential campaign. According to public opinion, they are the two candidates with the greatest probability of success. In this context, the permanent Council of the French Bishops’ Conference issued a statement on 8 February, urging citizens to exercise their electoral duty: “Let’s make sure that the debate isn’t reduced to the denunciation of scandals, controversies about personalities and the conduct of current political life”. Conscious of the disillusionment and disinterest of citizens in politics, they add: “Even if imperfect, democracy is an opportunity that is given to us and that we must seize”. According to the opinion polls, the “scandals” that dog French political life do not explain alone the abandonment of politics by so many people. The Commission of social affairs of the French episcopate has pointed out that “there also exists a serious disinterest in politics by the young. They don’t feel themselves involved. On the contrary, they feel a sense of impotence, in response to the promises made by politicians”. The problem of security. The mass media have placed the problem of security at the centre of the electoral debate. “It’s a very important problem – notes the secretary of the social Commission – since fear and the widespread feeling of insecurity are replacing the issue of unemployment as an obsessive concern”. At school and in the suburbs, on the streets or on public transport, the French are afraid. “Every citizen has a right to security. This task – emphasizes the French Church – concerns the State”, but it warns of the risk of excessive reaction. The dignity of the human person, support for the family and the fight against every form of exclusion: these are the themes stressed by the bishops in their statement. “The shortcomings of education, the feeling of injustice, disadvantage and abandonment: these are the causes of social exclusion – explains the secretary of the episcopal Commission. And if poverty has been reduced in numerical terms, its intensity has increased”. In France, six million people are living below the poverty threshold. “A reform of the police or the justice system isn’t enough. The social link needs to be recomposed day by day”. France looks at her navel. The bishops have also urged greater attention and solidarity for the poor countries, but so far the electoral debates have remains insular and self-regarding. “It’s France and her navel”, declared the French daily “Le Monde”. Problems like that of terrorism or relations with the countries in the southern hemisphere are never mentioned. The episcopal Commission points out, for example, that as regards aid to the developing world, France is among the countries that contribute least, allocating only 0.3% of its GDP as against the 0.7% of other countries. And he adds: “How can we reawaken Europe and imbue her with a soul?”. “There is no doubt – declared Msgr. François Favreau, bishop of Nanterre – that the anti-global campaigners are making legitimate observations. It would be simplistic, however, to suppose it would be enough to renounce nuclear energy or transgenetic crops to solve everything”. So a “magic solution does not exist”. Bishop Favreau is also urging a greater attention to social questions in the electoral debate. “In France – he says – there exists a civilization of prerogative, of ‘those entitled to rights’. We need to consider the question more closely, because not having rights is equivalent to not having papers: it means becoming a non-person, being dead at the social level. Without recognition of duties, social life is falsified and the common good squandered. But too often this is ignored”. M.G.