French cohabitation in crisis
Diego Martín Velázquez Caballero
The French model is always exemplified as a hybrid regime, with a double engine, a political engineering design that broke the curse of anarchy. France is one of the few cases where parliamentarism could not flourish democracy, it was necessary to destroy four republics for the fifth to function regularly; until now, when Emmanuelle Macron seems willing to blow up the political regime or, like Marshal Petain, hand it over to the Nazis.
The 5th Republic, one of the most admired regimes in Latin America, in addition to electoral innovations and legislative control, also moved on the assumption of courtesy and political civility. Mitterrand and Chirac, for example, despite the great power of the Head of State in the Gallic country, respected the institutionality of semi-presidentialism and tested the parliamentary engine when the legislative forces were adverse; Of course, the ministers of the cohabitation also showed legal responsibility and loyalty to the political system. The semi-presidential model, based on the speed of the French guillotine, is designed to force collaborative work between dissident forces.
The crisis of the traditional political parties has forced the French electorate to empower an outsider representative of the Ancien Régime. Macron's detachment from the bases and social movements in his country has been demonstrated on several occasions: repression, adjustment policies, reduction of social policy, incentives to the bourgeoisie, etc. However, the recent second round of legislative elections deserves to be taken into consideration by the presidential criteria, the commitment of the socialists and other progressive forces to republican democracy was more than evident; therefore, Macron's inability to appoint a Prime Minister who corresponds to the left-wing coalition must be considered as high treason.
In the future, Macron perhaps plans to govern with the criteria of Vladimir Putin. Russia also has a semi-presidential design that it has never used, it could ask parties like United Russia or the PRI, the ways to achieve a qualified majority and avoid the unpleasant compromises of the second rounds.
France is the big question of the multicultural model. The 5th Republic is not only admired for its ability to digest a participation that overloads democracy but also for proposing a governance design to generate collaboration between antipodal political parties and social groups with a high level of cleavage, rupture and social differentiation. Macron behaves like a mischievous PRI president; but the thing goes further, his betrayal shows that he deeply distrusts multiculturalism and radical democracy, also that he does not believe in the French institutional design.
Macron sides with the conservative waves that also embrace populism and violate democracy. The right-wing ideas of Le Pen, Zemmour, De Benoist and Finkielkraut are gaining ground in a rebellious France that only has the streets and the Arab Spring left.