“The great threat weighing on democracy is its disorder, its weakening”

Every day, a personality invites itself into the world of Élodie Suigo. Thursday April 11, 2024: former President of the Republic François Hollande. He has just published in the collection “When it goes – when it goes not” by Glénat Jeunesse, the work “Their Europe explained to young and old”.

The newspaper The Parisian recently published an article concerning François Hollande entitled “François Hollande relishes his newfound popularity“. He is indeed currently at the highest in the opinion barometers, which gives hope to his closest collaborators and his supporters demanding his return. François Hollande led and represented France from May 15, 2012 to May 14 2017, after serving as first secretary of the Socialist Party from 1997 to 2008 during the third cohabitation, then in opposition.

It has just been published in the collection When it’s okay – when it’s not okay at Glénat Jeunesse, the work Their Europe explained to young and oldillustrated by Laure Monloubou.

franceinfo: Is it essential to get on the level of children? Is it easy?

Francois Hollande : No. This is the most difficult exercise. There is the need to speak as simply as possible without falling into a form of popularization which would be a narrowing. It’s being demanding while providing simple formulas and from this point of view, illustration comes to save me. The role of everyone, especially a former President of the Republic, is to transmit. People ask me: “What is a former President of the Republic?” I answer that it’s a transmitter. He must transmit his experience, what he has lived through. He must transmit what he understood, what he learned while being President of the Republic. And he must do it for the younger generations. However, I will tell you a secret: this book is made for children, for adolescents, but in reality, it is made for parents.

Being very honest, in relation to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, do you have confidence in this Europe? Do you find it solid or fragile?

For now, she held on. Vladimir Putin’s calculation was to think that by invading Ukraine. We were not going to react, that the Ukrainians were going to give in to this coup, that the Americans, because they are far away, would not be concerned about responding and resisting by providing weapons. Nothing happened as Putin planned. And so, for the moment, Europe is holding on. But it is over time that it will be challenged.

“The bet of authoritarian regimes is to think that democracies are brittle, fragile, that they are simply concerned with the immediate and that they are not aware of their strength and their need to defend themselves .”

Francois Hollande

at franceinfo

We inevitably think of the dove and wonder if it continues to fly with its own wings. That’s the real question.

For the dove to continue flying, it must have a cage and it must be defended. Otherwise at some point, the dove is stolen.

You were extremely mistreated, you suffered attacks, insults, we heard “Flanby”, “the pedal boat captain”… This renewed popularity, the fact that you get standing ovations when you meet students , when you move, does it affect you?

I believe that there was a kind of confusion between an approach which was mine to be as simple, as human as possible, as normal, I said at the time, and the capacity to take decisions. However, I made particularly serious decisions during my mandate. Intervention in Africa, Syria, Iraq. Prevent the delivery of Mistral boats to Russia, support Ukraine, confront terrorism.

What I’m trying to get across is that a president can be simple, close, human and capable of making very serious decisions for the country. Today, when we look back on the decisions that I was able to take on the international level, I think that they are seen as being or having been the right ones. Can you imagine if we had delivered the Mistral boats with the helicopters on them to Russia? This would undoubtedly have given him the possibility of conquering Odessa, in particular, in Ukraine.

Isn’t this popularity also an encouragement to the people who support you? If there is a possibility, do you want to go there?

“How can a former president be useful? He must try to make people understand that our democracy is not as strong as we imagine, that it is threatened and that we must therefore get back to work together And the others.”

Francois Hollande

at franceinfo

I try to convince that politics is not just about personalities who absolutely want to be candidates. It happens that I was president, so I am not taken by some demon which would consist of saying that I cannot exist, I cannot live without having the hope of a return to the Élysée, or an accession to the Élysée.

What I try to make understood is that politics is first and foremost ideas and parties to carry them and that nothing is possible alone. Today, the great threat weighing on democracy is precisely its disorder, this kind of general weakening of all institutions, in particular Parliament. The absence of major political groups which structured French political life. I try to contribute to this restoration, but not simply to nourish an ambition. Mine is accomplished. We must be concerned about what has been left to us and which I myself have inherited, and I would not like the democracy I have known to not be able to tomorrow be as radiant as I imagined it.