Christiane Taubira broke the silence on Friday, December 17, and announced: “I am considering being a candidate for the presidential election of the French Republic” in a video posted on Facebook, in which she gives “see you in mid-January”. Is it a political tornado … or a storm in a glass of water?
>> Follow our live after Christiane Taubira’s announcement
The strictly political considerations are relatively clear: Christiane Taubira opens the door to a rally behind her from part of the left. Jean-Luc Mélenchon seems determined to defend his program in front of the voters, no matter what. But as regards Yannick Jadot and Anne Hidalgo, the possibility of a united candidacy is not excluded insofar as their proposals are a priori compatible, and their campaigns are struggling for the moment to take off. One could even imagine that they would be joined by Arnaud Montebourg.
What matters is you. ChT pic.twitter.com/ZSxVLpeaim
– Christiane Taubira (@ChTaubira) December 17, 2021
Is a candidacy behind Christiane Taubira possible? Maybe that would make sense. We know that Christiane Taubira arouses enthusiasm among many voters on the left. Afterwards, what could be the vector of such a gathering? Anne Hidalgo pushes for this to go through the popular primary, in which Christiane Taubira has many supporters. Yannick Jadot has always opposed it to an inadmissibility. Today, he even reaffirmed that he would be the candidate of ecology anyway, by inviting his competitors to rally behind him. Of course, we can’t rule out seeing them agreeing on a primary or joint candidacy in the coming weeks, but as we speak, let’s say the discussions seem complicated.
In rhetorical terms now: is Christiane Taubira’s statement a game-changer? That’s the whole point. “I am considering being a candidate” : the expression is obviously surprising. So, from a political point of view, it is understandable: it is this word, “I envisage”, which leaves him a way out in case his union proposal is rejected.
But from a rhetorical point of view, it comes up against an elementary rule: the more one asserts oneself, the more one triumphs over reluctance. Or, to put it more clearly: the more convinced we seem, the more convincing we become. However, by continuing to highlight her own hesitations, Christiane Taubira takes the risk of arousing caution rather than motivation. In short: all this lacks a bit of panache.
Is it convincing on the merits? “Strengthen social cohesion, ensure safety and security, achieve the fine ambition of equality and social justice, make the world less brutal, safer”, she says in this video. Everyone agrees… But that is precisely the problem: everyone agrees! We are swimming again in an ocean of inspiring concepts: these bombastic but meaningless words that speak to everyone without saying anything to anyone.
There is even this amazing sentence: “Clear and stable answers to be given to these difficult subjects of energy sources or weaponry.” Certainly, but which ones? For now, we will not know more. Christiane Taubira’s political line remains, for the moment, as vague as her candidacy is uncertain. So it’s a storm in a glass of water rather than a political tornado, but let’s wait! French policy has shown that it can be surprising and, once again, Christiane Taubira is generating momentum from part of the left. But from the momentum to the election, there is a step, and it is not obvious.