Bastien Faudot has been officially nominated by the Republican and Citizen Movement (MRC) to be a candidate in the 2017 presidential election.
This 37-year-old philosophy graduate, departmental councilor of the Territoire de Belfort, will be the candidate of the party founded by Jean-Pierre Chevènement — who has since slammed the door.
“A voice is missing that carries the Nation on the left. The other lefts have decided for about thirty years now to dismiss the Nation as a relevant political space. Yet, there is no politics without a political territory. This is the meaning of the MRC’s candidacy for the presidency,” he told us during an interview on his visit to Nice recently.
For his first trip, Bastien Faudot responded to the invitation of the Alpes-Maritimes federation of the MRC* and its President Ladislas Polski.
A trip under the theme: “the republic everywhere, the republic for everyone”.
It was also an opportunity for Bastien Faudot to propose four major initiatives in looking towards 2017: the social issue and work, taxation and wealth distribution, institutions and the revival of the Fifth Republic, Europe, and the question of the euro. Essential initiatives so that the Republic, everywhere and for everyone, can be concretely embodied.
The Republican and Citizen Movement has been bringing a specific voice to the public debate for many years, following in the footsteps of Jean-Pierre Chevènement, placing the republican question at the heart of reflection and action.
The Republic, so often invoked even by those who contribute to weakening it, is not a lukewarm concept, but a demanding idea, which involves a strong state, sure of its authority, a state that guarantees public order but must also play a decisive role in the economic order, to promote development while correcting inequalities of birth.
The MRC has decided to present a candidate for the 2017 presidential election.
In 2012, we chose to support, with our eyes open, the election of Francois Hollande and his main commitment, which was to renegotiate the European treaties with our partners, primarily Germany under Madame Merkel.
Unfortunately, the day after his election, Francois Hollande abandoned this commitment. All the economic policy he has pursued since stems from this renunciation: forced to meet the demands of the European Commission on reducing public spending, he has only been able to pursue a liberal policy contrary to the commitments he presented to the French (let us remember his speech at Le Bourget: “my enemy is finance!”…).
Therefore, the MRC wishes to participate in the debate of the 2017 presidential election by presenting its vision and proposals for our country to reconnect with the very essence of the Republic, which is the sovereignty of the people inseparable from national sovereignty.
Too often, the will expressed by the French people through universal suffrage, as in the 2005 referendum on the European constitutional treaty, has subsequently been bypassed.
This situation, “post-democratic” in the sense that the appearances of democracy are maintained but the real exercise of the sovereignty of the people is undermined, is at the root of the major political crisis we are experiencing, in which a National Front thrives against which moral arguments and the reflexes of “blockades” are proving increasingly ineffective.
Liberty, equality, fraternity, but also secularism: republican concepts to which we must give a concrete and demanding meaning every day.
Ladislas Polski, Regional President and National Secretary of the MRC
Municipal councilor of La Trinité
