The End of Politics

Roger Berkowitz
There are all sorts of books written about How Democracies Die. Hannah Arendt argued that the great threats to democracies are bureaucratization and bigness, both of which led to Praxis-Entzug, a feeling of disempowerment and depoliticization. This certainly seems to be happening in France. Ivanne Trippenbach, Julie Carriat, Laurent Telo, Solenn de Royer and Olivier Faye write in Le Monde that the Presidential election in France has encountered unprecedented apathy.

It is a bizarre presidential campaign, whose apparent emptiness hides concealed deep tensions. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, in March 2020, French political life seems caught in a fog. Perhaps it had arrived with the victory of Mr. Macron, in 2017. Still, the country's main democratic event seems of no interest. Opinion polls warn that abstention could reached again the record level (28.4%) of the 2002 election, which was marked by Jean-Marie Le Pen's unexpected qualification for the second round.
"Worry," "uncertainty" and "tiredness": these are the first three feelings expressed by the French when asked about their state of mind. "When you are tired, you want to go on vacation, not worry about politics," said a former government advisor. "There is a problem of demand, not supply."