Prime Minister Jean Castex and Socialist Mayor of Paris Anne Hidaldo, October 18, 2020 during a tribute to Samuel Paty.
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Bertrand GUAY / AFP
As after each attack, calls for national union have multiplied after the beheading of Samuel Paty on Friday, in front of the college of Conflans-Saint-Honorine where this history and geography professor taught.
But there was no political truce.
The right-wing opposition criticizes the government's policy in the fight against Islamist terrorism.
The left has been divided over possible complacency with political Islam.
The national tribute organized on Wednesday should give politicians the opportunity to show unity.
They were about 300, on the steps of the National Assembly, under a gray sky.
Deputies from various political parties paid tribute on Tuesday to Samuel Paty, the professor assassinated on Friday in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines).
"The united national representation, standing and resolved to fight the claimed enemies of democracy, reason and the Enlightenment," tweeted Richard Ferrand, LREM president of the lower house of Parliament, to accompany the cliché.
But this image does not eclipse political divisions.
The United National Representation, standing and resolute to fight the claimed enemies of democracy, reason and the Enlightenment.
Homage to Samuel Paty, cowardly murdered because he developed the critical spirit of our children.
Freedom.
Equality.
Fraternity.
pic.twitter.com/vdZZO2yTX9
- Richard Ferrand (@RichardFerrand) October 20, 2020
The ideal of a political truce
A few minutes after this photo showing a united political front, the exchanges between the government and the majority during questions to the government were sometimes heated.
In the hemicycle, the Republican deputy Damien Abad accused the majority of "renouncements" and of having "systematically refused all our proposals against radical Islamism".
“Any opportunity is seized, in this period of crisis to fuel the controversy and align the untruths.
It is not worthy!
», Replied the Prime Minister.
"The nation must know how to federate, to regroup", tried to plead Jean Castex before the Assembly, summoning the idea of a national union, a classic of political life in times of crisis.
“It is a moment of truce, like when President Raymond Poincaré asked in 1914 [at the start of the First World War] for a 'sacred union'.
For three years, there was no longer any controversial debate between the parties, ”recalls historian Jean Garrigues.
"This is also reflected in spontaneous citizen mobilizations, around common values, such as the marches after the attack on Charlie Hebdo in January 2015."
The government criticized
Already, in 2015, the national union had only been “ephemeral”, recalls Jean Garrigues.
And since the assassination of the history professor on Friday, the subjects of divisions have not been lacking among politicians.
Some have chosen not to join the rallies organized on Sunday in several cities, like Senator LR Bruno Retailleau.
"I will not be today Place de la République", he announced on Sunday, denouncing "too many tributes without courage", implicitly tackling the government.
The reproaches made to the executive for its action in the fight against Islamist terrorism also increased on Tuesday, coming mainly from the right.
"I am wary of commemorations if they do not serve to finally open the eyes," said LR president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Laurent Wauquiez, estimating that "five years after the massacre of Charlie Hebdo journalists, nothing has not changed ”.
A divided political class, like society
"I do not have the feeling that the national union does not exist", estimates the LREM deputy of Paris Sylvain Maillard in spite of the criticisms.
"A lot of ideas are put on the table, we have to discuss them, the debate is healthy."
The elected judge deems unity "necessary", while pointing out "those who were ambiguous with political Islam".
Accusations of appeasement which also come to disturb the difficult national union.
Former Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls accused Jean-Luc Mélenchon on Sunday of having “his share of responsibility for this cowardice that there was on the part of the left” in the fight against Islamism.
For rebellious deputy Adrien Quatennens, invited to France 2 this Tuesday, the former Prime Minister, by wanting to "settle accounts" with the founder of the movement, "shattered" a "necessary national unity in the face of the adversary".
For the historian Jean Guarrigues, the absence of a political truce harms the government as well as the oppositions.
“This discredits both, by giving the image of a form of political recovery, of a political game far removed from the concerns of the French”.
According to the researcher, "our capacity to feel a form of collective emotion is less because society is extremely archipelagic, fragmented, and because the pact of confidence no longer exists between citizens and elected officials".
Wednesday evening, a national tribute to Samuel Paty, organized at the Sorbonne around Emmanuel Macron and the government, could be the opportunity to display a form of political unity despite everything.
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