Lhe disappearance of Queen Elizabeth II, at the end of a reign of seventy years, raises the crucial question of incarnation in a democratic regime. Since 1952, through all the personal and collective vicissitudes that “The Queen” has gone through, she has undoubtedly succeeded in embodying her country and her people, better than any Republican head of state.
Throughout his reign, including at the low point of his popularity in 1992, the“horrible year”, she has retained the support of the British, three-quarters of whom revere her at the time of her passing. This exceptional popularity, despite the outdated nature of the monarchical institution and the thousand and one criticisms it has aroused, is partly explained by the exceptional longevity of his reign (1952-2022), but not only.
It is due to the very personality of Elizabeth, who knew how to exercise her role as queen with haughtiness but also discretion, benevolence and humor, qualities particularly prized by the British. It is also part of a historical narrative, masterfully scripted by the royal entourage, who knew how to stage the adventures of the reign, the moments of glory or misfortune, without the Queen’s image ever being permanently damaged. .
The mother of all Britons
But, more fundamentally, what makes Elizabeth popular is her intimate relationship with the history of her people, since that day in 1940 when, aged just 14, she spoke to young English people on the radio to support them in the ordeal of war, concluding: “We know, each of us, that everything will end well. » From that moment, the British understood that she would be by their side through thick and thin, wars and crises, like a maternal and protective figure, an unsinkable embodiment of their patriotic resilience.
And while successive prime ministers at 10 Downing Street, from Winston Churchill to Liz Truss, she remained thus, on the heights of the monarchical function, impervious to the vagaries of political life, strictly respecting her duty of reserve, devoid of the power to govern, but rid of the critical charge that accompanies this power, a figure of immaculate incarnation, installed in the heights of history.
This is exactly the opposite of what happened in another reference democracy, ours. When, in 2012, a survey asked the French people who best embodied France in their eyes, it was figures from the past that came to mind, first General de Gaulle, far ahead of Napoleon, then Louis XIV, while Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of the Republic then in office, did not even appear in the list, any more than his predecessors.
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