“Let’s not add to the collapse of the left that of the Gaullist right”

2023-07-12 06:05:57
Aurélien Pradié in his office at the National Assembly, in Paris, July 11, 2023. BRUNO FERT FOR “THE WORLD”

The deputy (Les Républicains, LR) for Lot, Aurélien Pradié, has decided to come out of his silence to deliver his analysis of urban violence. If he finds nothing to complain about with the repressive answers brought by his political family, he stands out from certain remarks, in particular those of Bruno Retailleau – the senator from Vendée spoke of “ethnic regression” about the rioters – whom he accuses of “deviate from fundamental values” from the right.

With a little hindsight and a moment of silence, what analysis do you draw from these riots?

I see in it the sign of an absolutely generalized collapse of political action, of political authority, of fundamental republican principles. Everything collapsed like a house of cards in the space of a few hours. What also struck me was the cowardice. First the cowardice of the rioters themselves. You would have to be crazy or unconscious to imagine that these rioters had any social cause. And faced with this cowardice, the collapse of political authority.

What do you mean ?

Politicians have bet everything on maintaining order. And if the maintenance of order was vital and fundamental, the politician immediately hid behind the police, the gendarmes and the firefighters to send them to the front line and not take responsibility. During this period, we also witnessed the birth of political “jubilators”. On the far left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his friends made a definitively disqualifying bet, which was that the collapse of the great republican principles could serve their electoral cause. They have become enemies of the Republic. As for the extreme right, it was jubilant to see in the firing of the country the confirmation of its political thesis.

And the right? Some proposals and words from personalities in your party may also have been shocking. Do you disagree on any points?

To have radical proposals to address the situation is to be up to the challenges of the country. Whenever my political family has made courageous proposals, I have always supported them. On the other hand, I do not accept Bruno Retailleau’s remarks on the “ethnic regression” to evoke the rioters. The taste for political incorrectness, the apparent intellectualization of the ills of society cannot justify distorting our fundamental values. This is an impassable limit if we do not want the right to disappear. Neither Charles Pasqua nor Philippe Séguin would have tolerated such remarks. They would have been firm on the restoration of republican values ​​and order, but they would never have tipped over into a revival of race war. Let’s not add to the collapse of the left that of the Gaullist right.

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