While the world takes us off into flights of fantasy, violence takes root, and in a great number of places the specter of war looms, terrorism strikes -- even in our trains -- all while a major economic crisis is brewing in Asia. Inequalities are exploding, unemployment has not been reduced, population movements are accelerating vertiginously, new ideologies are forming everywhere, the wildest technologies are turning our everyday lives upside-down and transforming the very nature of the work itself (and tomorrow the human condition).
All of this while the French political class, rather blandly, is preparing for the new political year, using the traditional method that lies very far from the issues at stake -- in short, the worst method, one that is not worthy of the country. While these challenges and threats should call on political parties to issue a mea culpa on past mistakes, an in-depth reflection on the reforms to be implemented and the construction of a pedagogical speech in order to influence public opinion is needed. While the French expect their leaders to act as guides, yet again in France we are witnessing after the summer recess, the start of a new political year for fools. The ruling parties make multiple promises (that they do not believe for one second) that cannot be delivered; opposition parties are happy enough with systematic criticism on everything, without thinking and with no proposals.
If only their rhetoric at least was about the key issues of the moment! But this is not the case, we hear only sound bites on issues of secondary importance. Some swear that taxes will be reduced: big deal! Who can believe it? Without even saying what expenses will be reduced or eliminated in order to do this, and while they continue to increase them at the slightest protest of any pressure group. Others criticize on the fly, in the Pavlovian manner, without shifting the debate on what matters, and most of them are avoiding -- tragically -- the examination of key issues: primary school, institutions, the European construction and the unleashing of potentials.
The so-called government parties, in power and in the opposition, are no longer anything but teams in the service of some candidates for the next French presidential elections. And the most extreme parties, on the Left and Right alike, become shamelessly lost in ridiculous conflicts between individuals, while the ideological vacuum of the camps that are used to govern should prompt them to seek a coherent political voice, attracting voters who are just waiting to follow those who will inspire them.
We cannot afford to stay long-term in such a situation. We must not accept a new political year of this kind, so far removed from the challenges of the time. We cannot long endure a political class so far removed from the tragedy of the world. They must wake up and take action, or else the people are going to push them out, for the benefit of newcomers, as has happened in many European countries -- and on the horizon in the United States.
It is well known that France does not initiate reforms, but only revolutions. Revolutions occur on a daily basis all across the planet today, on all subjects and on all fronts. Soon, our country will do the same, or it will disappear. Take a good look at this new political year, fruitless and futile, it is almost certainly the last of its kind. The next will, I am sure, be that of awakening.