The crisis of politics

What has happened in politics is exactly what has happened in art: in the West, representation is in crisis. Just as painting is slowly but surely moving towards less and less representation of the world and more and more abstraction, even absurdity, representative democracy is on a slippery slope. A non-negligible proportion of the population can no longer identify with what museums, as reservoirs of paintings, or political parties, as reservoirs of politicians, have to offer.

This observation is widely shared by analysts and politicians alike.  In Switzerland, the land of semi-direct democracy envied the world over, the issue is gradually gaining in importance. On the right, elected representatives often relativize the problem, relying on existing institutions, even if they are ready to think about the measures to be taken. On the left, in the broadest sense of the term, ideas for change are being put forward: the aim is to move towards «more democracy». The right to vote at sixteen, citizen structures of all kinds, the right to vote for foreigners... Some, including a handful of young Liberal-Radicals, even raise the question of clothing: if the Swiss people no longer recognize themselves in their representatives, it's because they live in their world - the old one. Let them take off their shirts!

Wouldn't what is seen as an excess of officialdom actually be the opposite, namely a lack of prestige? Just think of the extent to which Swiss President Simonetta Sommaruga's televised greetings in her little bakery on December 31st had the whole of Europe sniggering, as if the «laughter is good for you» episode hadn't been enough. It's precisely by trying to play the simple man that politicians make fools of themselves! François Hollande, who sold himself as a «normal president», governed under a barrage of mockery and dissatisfaction, even before he began his mandate. Normal: there's nothing normal about the presidency of a state.

The lack of vision of our politicians is what should concern us first and foremost.They're not just managers. Let them show us the beginnings of an itinerary for our community, even if it's in a bakery! When the executive doesn't fulfill this role, the legislature that elected it also loses credibility. Unfortunately, that's just about what's happening. The question of the right to vote from the age of sixteen is basically as secondary as that of clothing. Both only concern the surface. Will we ever talk about substance again in this country?

The right of foreigners to vote at national level, one of the subjects currently under discussion, would dismantle a precious link: between nationality and citizenship. If it no longer offers the right to participate in political life, what does nationality become? Is it condemned to being no more than the possession of an origin? Which one, that of the father of the father of the father...? From a foreigner's point of view, what's the point of seeking Swiss nationality if you can already take part in elections and votes?

Advocates of the right to vote for foreigners are no doubt satisfied with this outcome, since they are not in fact attached to the notion of nationality. Their ultimate project, not even concealed, is to make the old world obsolete, by which they mean the modern world, the concepts of nationality, the rule of law, secularism, the militia system and even institutions. And yet, a nation, that frightening reality, is more than just a country.^th century a state, and since the^th century of the rule of law.

Write to the author: jonas.follonier@leregardlibre.com

Drawing: © Nathanaël Schmid for Le Regard Libre