The presidential elections are approaching. In twenty months, the new President of the Republic will be known. The only declared candidate for 2007 is Catherine de Medicis, author of the book “I’m Arriving.” It’s impossible to know who it is.
The Nice resident Alain Mourguy was briefly Catherine de Medicis before denying it. He (or she) is playing with this race for candidacy.
And the media love this race. Politicians do too. They get talked about, attracting the press. Philippe de Villiers, Olivier Besancenot, François Bayrou, Jean-Marie Le Pen, or even Bernard Tapie are almost certain to be on the starting line.
The Green’s candidate is missing (Noël Mamère or Dominique Voynet), from the Communist Party (Marie-Georges Buffet or Robert Hue). From November 18 to 20, the Socialist Party congress will take place in Le Mans. Who among François Hollande, Laurent Fabius, Ségolène Royal, Jack Lang, Dominique Strauss-Khan will emerge stronger from this congress? Who will receive the support of the majority of PS activists?
Such are the questions preceding this gathering… In short, everyone hopes to know the Socialist candidate for 2007. At UMP, the same suspense: Jacques Chirac, Dominique de Villepin, or Nicolas Sarkozy. Their rivalries are staged to the detriment of governmental actions. Too bad for them, all the better for the press… Perhaps too bad for the citizens. But all the better for Catherine de Medicis.
He plays on the French people’s fed-up attitude and their disillusionment with politics. The “real” candidates rely on programs they do not respect. Anyway, the French have criteria that belong to them.
The mystery candidate only replicates the futile programs of the major candidates. Is he trying to prove that just about anyone could run? He has proven that he was capable of devising a program. He still needs to prove that he can govern a nation like France for a five-year term, form a government, find allies in bicameralism. After listing these presidential competencies, is it necessary to mention the obligation to maintain France’s role in the world?
Voters only read the leaflets. Anyone can make one. You and me. Each citizen is capable of proposing ideas according to their ideology, their values, their priorities. But to be a politician, one must have the skills. You cannot improvise. You do not have the right to improvise, to play with fears.
You need to be knowledgeable in Law, History, Geopolitics, Economics… “Knowledgeable” is not just having simple basics but mastering all these areas perfectly. Currently, there is a gratuitous lynching of politicians. It’s often forgotten that they are incredibly intelligent, cultured, and sincere about their convictions. Too often, they are caricatured: “all corrupt, just in it for the money.” It’s too easy. Too simplistic.
Can we vote for a candidate whose competencies we do not know? Can we trust someone we do not know? A mother does not entrust her baby to a stranger. A vote is like a child that we entrust.
Politics is serious.
Vincent Trinquat
