More than 20,000 people will meet this evening, Saturday June 4, for a major concert to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, 70 years of reign. With in particular Alicia Keys, Elton John on the stage installed in front of Buckingham Palace. Decryption with Jean Viard, sociologist, research director at the CNRS. We have been attending this Jubilee show across the Channel for two days. We can see how much the British are attached and passionate about Queen Elizabeth, but it is also a bit of a French passion.
franceinfo: The French media are very interested in the whole British monarchy, the French with them. How do we explain this interest?
John Viard: There are different ways: there are Rolls Royce, the pubs, the fact that they drive on the left, the Union Jack flag and the Queen of England. All that makes the package of English charm, all that differentiates them from us and at the same time, we are affectionate neighbors. So there are all these characters for that. I’m not sure it’s the English monarchy. It’s the Queen of England who has been there for a very long time, who is a very sober character and she is always dressed in one color, but never with decorations or charms everywhere.
So she’s an extra character, we’ve all always lived with her, since she’s reigned 70 years, and 96 years old. He is an eternal character. We have no idea that she can die. It’s like a Greek god, it’s like a statue of Apollo or Diana the huntress. In fact, it should become a hologram in some way, and continue over the centuries to be a hologram that symbolizes England. I don’t think it’s about the monarchy, it’s part of the English costume, it’s Britain.
But see us, we have something else, we have our political figures, Jaurès for some, Blum, de Gaulle for others. And each country tells itself that it has a symbol, something that symbolizes it. Look at the Americans with their seven founding fathers, these immense statutes in the Rock where there is Jefferson, Franklin Roosevelt, there is Adams and basically, they constantly refer to these seven founders. Well, there are a few who had slaves, but each has its more or less real story.
The symbols of which you speak to us, for France, for the United States, are historical symbols. The Queen of England is still benevolent and she is a tutelary figure, also benevolent in the eyes of the British. Do we have an equivalent in France?
We had a President of the Republic before General de Gaulle changed and gave him powers, the Germans have President of the Republic, but I don’t even know what his name is or what he is used for. I see the Belgians, they have a king, but we never talk about it. Do we really need a symbolic figure in the modern world? I do not know. In any case, the English model works like that. But look at the Commonwealth. New Zealand plans to leave the Commonwealth. I’m very concerned that after the Queen passes away, the Commonwealth will go a little all over the place.
It’s a bit from another era too. We needed it to symbolize. There was no TV over the radio, so the idea that we were all from the same community, we needed feathered leaders to symbolize it. This is more or less the role of the pope, for example for Catholics. So look at the Protestants, they don’t have big symbols like that.
As a result, they don’t have this sort of power that the pope has, who doesn’t necessarily have more troops, but who in any case has a much stronger symbolic power. Afterwards, you also have to see England, there is England, there is Scotland and Ireland, there is Wales. And so it’s very fragmented. Obviously seen from here it’s an island, but in fact it’s very, very different nations. There have been terrible wars.
Scotland is considering independence, so the Queen has a central role in holding these pieces together. It must be said because it is an island that has been very, very divided between different pieces, and that too counts. There, she is an extremely strong symbol of unity. But it’s the same for the King of the Belgians. I believe it unifies Flemings and Walloons. And somewhere, fortunately he is there.