According to him, “in the face of the state’s inability to provide minimal accommodation, associations have put in place temporary measures interpreted by the Prefect and the Mayor of Nice as an illegal occupation of public spaces.” He concludes: “This is unacceptable and it shifts responsibility. The state should fulfill its duty, and the makeshift and mobile camps will cease.”
We are surprised by Patrick Allemand’s astonishment, who is an experienced and astute politician, regarding the attitude and decisions made by the Prefect and the Minister-Mayor of Nice. It seems evident that the political choice made by the President of the Republic, the Government, the presidential majority, and all the elected UMP officials responsible for local authorities is clearly to play the ‘strong-arm’ security card as one of the key themes of the 2012 presidential campaign.
How can one imagine that Christian Estrosi would not be the faithful interpreter of this approach in his city, he who recently proposed the adoption of ‘disciplinary’ measures against lenient Mayors?
Thus, it is this. From this episode will stem many others in the long electoral path. Unfortunately, it is the weakest and most deprived who will pay the price for this policy and beyond situations one should conceptualize. Indeed, it is to be expected that the subject will remain within a general and instrumentalized framework that will make use of the complex language of numbers and statistics.
For one would like to agree, the situation is nonetheless schizophrenic. On one hand, the Ministry of the Interior, relayed by certain mayors (including Christian Estrosi), communicates increasingly positive results on the decline in crime following prevention (video surveillance) and repression measures adopted by the Municipal Police or National Gendarmerie. On the other, we take advantage of a few cases to create an alarming situation and legitimize policies as spectacular as they are useless in relation to the dimension of the problem. All of this with the obvious aim of ‘informing’ more than ‘effectively acting.’
But such is today the ‘variety-politics’ that trades on perception rather than reality, and on emotion rather than logic. We do not know how to solve the problem, but we want to give the impression of doing so, even if it means appearing, figuratively, like a half-pepper revealing its little grains.
An existing problem without solutions?
We are in a gigantic social upheaval of planetary dimension, the sorting out of which will endanger two pillars of our fundamental rights: freedom and equality. And this, according to social sciences experts, could result in the establishment of authoritarian governments. These will have the illusion that this is the only way to manage these social processes. These will lead to profound changes in the organization of our communities and our family and personal lives.
Fear, to enslave
Being afraid of the abyss is a precondition for delegating our rights and entrusting our responsibilities to the well-fed who propose to reassure and protect us. This is how some things are explained and how some political decisions, apparently illogical, find their effectiveness, especially in a world where information technologies have erased distance and time.
To conclude with Patrick Allemand’s remarks and without taking sides, it would be interesting to know the proposals of the socialist elected official, not just to limit criticism but at least to begin a path toward solving these problems. This path needs to be found quickly, as Mgr Michel Dubost, bishop and president of Justice and Peace at the Episcopal Conference of France, reminds us: “today, the Government tries to glare to prevent an attraction. It bets on the effect of announcements. Terribly, some take advantage of this to do things that scorn human dignity.”
The usual political wanderings of President Sarkozy, to which his lieutenants and ‘gunmen’ (the definition is not ours) are obliged to comply nationally and locally, do not improve matters. The current President of the Republic, named “Canon of the Lateran” like his predecessors since the XVII century, is he, as per this honorary religious title, the interpreter of the Church’s social doctrine or the authoritarian and ‘fiery’ man he likes to appear in his role as guardian of public order?
Here too, one should not be surprised. The President of the Republic is a fan of “multitasking,” this ability to perform multiple activities simultaneously. He is truly a jack-of-all-trades who forces his entourage to keep up with his frantic pace, at the risk of being dismissed for lack of efficiency.
An eternal recurrence?
One may wonder how in such a context, those with ambitions and who are in tune with his style of governance are not tempted to do more. Finally, a question arises for local elected officials whose surnames betray their origins: Would they be what they are today if their ancestors had not been welcomed and integrated? Reading historian Gérard Noiriel’s book (professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure): “Death to Italians, August 17, 1893, a tragedy of Italian immigration” which recounts the bloody events at Aigues-Mortes in which 8 Italian immigrants died and about fifty were injured might help refresh some memories.
As history is an eternal repetition, as philosopher Giambattista Vico so rightly said.
