How do we differentiate a debate from a show? The first rarely brings together a prancing crowd of 3,500 people on 300 meters of sidewalk, an hour before kick-off. A priori, you won’t find a crackling brazier either, or a stand offering refreshments, gizzard trays and rillaud sandwiches. Finally, it is rare for a debate to mix electro music, guitar solos and sketches – all in one of the biggest theaters in Paris. But above all, we would almost forget, a debate is based in theory on the confrontation of ideas.
Thursday, April 13, 8 p.m., the editorial staff of Current values, the weekly of the “right which assumes itself”, muddled the tracks in more than one way for the second edition of its “Great debate of values”, which brought together at the Dôme de Paris (15th stop) personalities from right but also, it was promised, left. With a red thread: giving back to the art of debate its letters of nobility… “Are you hot?”, begins, thunderously, the head of the video department of the weekly (VA +) Baudouin Wisselmann, converted into a driver room for the occasion. Thunderous applause. “You are, and we are, Current values !” The evening promises to be lively.
This year, no Gaspard Proust to warm up the public but redoubling the inventiveness of the writing. An hour before the start of the big raout, giant screens broadcast sketches featuring members of the editorial staff playing themselves. They too are the stars of the day. We thus discovered a Geoffroy Lejeune – the editorial director – dreaming of being a rockstar, a Tugdual Denis – his deputy – as a boosted sprinter carrying a message of the utmost importance, or even a Charlotte d’Ornellas – one of the most emblematic journalists of the editorial staff – wiping the dishes with a copy of the weekly because “it seems to be a dishcloth”…
Facade disagreement
We would almost forget that behind the scenes, personalities “that everything opposes” are preparing to debate face to face. Because at Valeurs Actuelles, we “like contradiction”, the first to discuss the theme of “civilization” are the MEP Les Républicains and philosopher François-Xavier Bellamy and the former Prime Minister Manuel Valls. We exchange a few courtesies, literary references… The only embryo of disagreement: the notion of civilizational “collapse”. The former Prime Minister being more hesitant than his “adversary” to use this term – although he recognizes that “of course, there is a civilizational risk (…) Before any political program, before any candidacy that embodies it, we must think about defending this civilisation, this culture and this identity”. In reality, almost all of their exchange will be placed under the sign of a common observation: the dangers of wokism and the excesses of a “certain left”. Now Manuel Valls, booed by part of the public on his arrival on stage, receives some applause. The debate between the president of the National Rally Jordan Bardella and the president of the Sapiens Institute Olivier Babeau, a liberal, will suffer the same fate: contradictory in form, sluggish in substance.
Should we blame Current values to have taken the path of lukewarmness? Perhaps it would have been otherwise if most of the left-wing personalities solicited had accepted the invitation. The editorial director also paid a vibrant tribute to those absent on an air of “Not there” by singer Vianney. Among them: Sandrine Rousseau (“she hesitated”, Rokhaya Diallo, Louis Boyard, Pap Ndiaye or even Alice Coffin (“she didn’t even answer”).
Programmatic speech
The only hope of a real confrontation: the debate between the president of the National Rally and Hugo Clément (he had been targeted in 2021 by a cover of the weekly entitled “Les écolo sectaires”) on the theme of ecology. But here again, pressed for time and constrained by the immensity of the subject, the two interlocutors, however radically opposed on the political spectrum, end up agreeing on the need to preserve the “common house”, whatever the political side. . Jordan Bardella concluded his presentation – closer to the programmatic discourse than to the argument – with the idea that “perhaps it would take less Sandrine Rousseau and a little more Hugo Clément”.
“If I agreed to come, it’s because VA agreed to make a donation to a charity association, so thank you for participating this evening in the fight against hunting with hounds”, loose for his part the journalist – who swore yet not to “hold a grudge” – before disappearing backstage. The message is clear: on the right as on the left, we are there to deliver a message, not to make a pact with the political enemy.
playground atmosphere
Any successful show has its “guest-star”. From those that we will gladly listen to without a contradictor. We thus find the editorialist of CNews Mathieu Bock-Côté dressed to the nines in a cream-colored suit. Wokism, gender theory, the “dominant ideology”, the so-called “mainstream” media… The Quebecois multiplies the punchlines at a cadenced rate under the frank laughter of the public. Second guest of honor, CNews journalist Christine Kelly, popess of the show Facing the news, for an intervention placed under the sign of emotion. Jumbled up, the former member of the CSA talks about her fight for freedom of expression, her police protection, her faith, and of course… pluralism of opinion. “If society were like [son émission] Facing the Infothat would be great!” The tone is set.
Last hope of jousting: the debate between the media lawyer Charles Consigny and the young prodigy of the ranks of Reconquest Stanislas Rigault. Irregular exchange.
“It makes me very happy that there are people on the left who came here this evening: Hugo Clément, Manuel Valls … but also Charles Consigny who gives us the pleasure of being there”, begins Stanislas Rigault.
“I did not find Éric Zemmour’s campaign very credible”, advances Charles Consigny.
“The Zénith de Pécresse was much better”, ironically still the sniper Rigault.
“I understood that Stanislas Rigault had planned a certain number of punchlines. Stanou’. I like him very much, he is a bit lost at the moment (…) but I have no doubt that he will eventually join me and join the republican circle”.
“Charles Consigny prefers to end up like Gérard Larcher…”
“Warning, Gérard Larcher may be the next Prime Minister so express yourself with caution…”
In the public, we are jubilant. Until Charles Consigny dared to whistle the end of recess by judging Éric Zemmour “too excluding” vis-à-vis the Muslims of France. Widespread boo. Here, the failure of the candidate advocating the union of rights in the presidential election has taken nothing away from the fervor of his supporters. Éric Zemmour did not make the trip, but in the darkness of the bleachers adjoining the stage, we can make out the silhouette of Olivier Ubeda, ex-conductor of his campaign…
VIP lounge
No time to drag on that already, the room empties towards the exit. Everyone wants to exchange a handshake, a selfie, or even a word with the headliners. Mathieu Bock-Côté takes a few selfies, as for Manuel Valls, we find him in the middle of a signing session for his latest book… But the majority of the headliners are in the “VIP square”. We see the feminists of the collective Nemesis, Marion Maréchal Le Pen, or the influencer of the identity right Thaïs d’Escufon.
“They” will come out at 11:15 p.m. to greet the crowd, security promises at 11:16 p.m. In the meantime, the public debriefs while toasting cigarettes. “It was a good thing to talk about ecology. But the format of the evening was too condensed for there to be real debates”, regrets one. The other salutes “the courage of those who do not think as [eux] to have come”.
On the forecourt, Charles Consigny willingly exchanges with members of the public. “Basically, I find their wish for ‘confrontation of ideas’ really interesting. Real debates of ideas are sorely lacking today,” he explains to L’Express. “But I am not fooled by the underlying idea: it is also a communication operation to promote the union of the rights”. And meanwhile, as in real shows, the stars are waiting.