Faced with criticism, the Elysée denies any borrowing from Renaud Camus, theoretician of the “great replacement” and author of a book entitled “Decivilization”. But for the left, the damage is already done.
Mortal attack on a nurse in Reims, death of three police officers in Roubaix in a collision with a vehicle whose driver had been drinking and taking drugs, attack on the mayor of Saint-Brevin who resigned… During the Council of Ministers, Wednesday, May 24, Emmanuel Macron returned to the violence within society, using in particular the term “decivilization“. The Head of State said: “You have to be intractable on the bottom“. For him, “no violence is legitimate, whether verbal or against people“. Must therefore “work in depth to counter this process of decivilization“. A term that startled the political class.
>> In Saint-Brevin-les-Pins, a march to say “farewell to the mayor” and hope “finally to turn the page”
Thus, if, in 2017, Emmanuel Macron campaigned against the “sad passions“, in 2022 against the “declinism“, word “decivilization” in 2023 is however the title of a book published in 2011 by Renaud Camus, an extreme right-wing essayist, who popularized the theory of the “great replacement”, taken up in particular during the presidential campaign of Eric Zemmour.
For the left, gathered at the same time, Wednesday May 25 in Saint-Brevin-les-Pins (Loire-Atlantique) for a march against the far right and in support of the resigning mayor Yannick Morez, the annoyance is palpable. Communist leader Fabien Roussel rolls his eyes: “All this contributes to sow confusion in the spirits. It does not contribute to clarifying precisely the values that must unite us: the values of the Republic“.
“He is the main fuel of the far right”
In the procession, the ecologist Sandrine Rousseau does not believe in clumsiness or chance. According to her, Emmanuel Macron uses this term knowingly. “This is part of Emmanuel Macron’s ambiguities, that is to say that he cannot say the word ‘extreme right’, but, on the other hand, he manages to say the words of the extreme right, the words of the thinkers of xenophobia, racism, the ‘great replacement’ and all things hate for the other. From the head of state of the country of human rights, it is not possible“, she denounced.
For the rebellious MP Matthias Tavel, it is a way for the Head of State to unfold the “red carpet at the RN” : “He rehabilitates Maurras, Pétain… Now, he takes up concepts that are linked to far-right thinking. Frankly, he is the main fuel of the far right and the main responsible for the blurring of benchmarks, of values, when he should be one of the main guardians“.
A controversy that exasperates the Elysée: “Nothing to do with the book. He’s not inspired by it.” supports one of the palace communicators. Before adding that decivilization is not “not a concept, but a reality“. The Élysée maintains that the intention of the president was “to challenge society on a climate of violence with multiple causes, but for which politics cannot be held solely responsible“.