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In friendship for Wolfgang Asholt.
Pencil on the poet's coffin: Art and power
Enfin, the president is persuadé that Sarfati is easily able to maneuver parce qu'il n'aucune idee politique, il veut juste être president pour le statute, pour le fun: l'habitation à l'Elysée, l'avion présidentiel, les voyages Officials in Kyrgyzstan, with the bayadères and the sabers, both of these conneries. Et puis dans cinq ans il s'en ira bien gentiment, ancien president de la république ce n'est pas rien, il aura toujours un chauffeur, un bureau, des secretaires, des gardes du corps, the pourra continuer à frimer devant ses potes de la télé.
Michel Houellebecq, Annihilate
Finally, the president convinced himself that Sarfati would be easy to manipulate because he has no political vision; he just wants to be the next president for the status, for the fun: the apartment in the Élysée Palace, the presidential plane, official trips to Kyrgyzstan with bayaderas and sabers, all that nonsense. And in five years, he'll leave quite obediently; as a former president of the republic, that's no small feat. He'll still have a chauffeur, an office, secretaries, bodyguards, and he can continue to show off to his buddies on television.
In France, it's that time again this spring of 2022, but this time under the shadow of the European peace order threatened by Putin. Jean-Christophe Buisson sees political science and literature simultaneously involved in the presidential elections, the quinquennat: "In France, there's a humanities discipline that combines rhetoric, theater, ballet, and film. This cultural melting pot is called politics. Every five years, when the presidential elections are held, it boils over—to the delight of political scientists and novelists. The former become serious and descriptive, the latter write with more lightness." 1 From a French perspective, the cultural federalism of the German federal states certainly remains an obstacle to a comparable presidential or chancellor novel. The Berlin Republic had strengthened national cultural policy cautiously yet consistently; the Commissioners for Culture and Media in the Federal Chancellery, like the German Cultural Council, wanted an independent Ministry of Culture at the national level. But on March 19, 2021, the Conference of Ministers of Culture, established in 2019, decided that there should be no centralization of cultural federalism, and thus no Federal Ministry of Culture. Before the 2021 elections, the Cultural Council sensed a new opportunity and, in its renewed demand, stated that cultural policy must be understood as intertwined with other policy areas. 2 However, a German form of the presidential novel is unlikely to develop in the direction of the French genre anytime soon, as long as representatives of power, such as artists, understand cultural policy in the Federal Republic of Germany as decentralized.
There are, of course, smaller examples of German chancellors as protagonists: Madame Merkel is a character in Christine de Maizières' novel about the so-called refugee crisis, The Balkan route from 2020, where she usually only appears as "la chancelière":
The camera is located in the place and is fixed to the cortège, which is directed to the center of the accumulator. Quelques voitures de police délimitent le périmètre. Soudain, des passants la reconnaissent. On entend des sifflements. Sur la droite retentissent quelques cris: « Traitor to the people, whore! Traîtresse au people, putain! »
La chancelière passe devant eux, imperturbable. In the center of the accumulator, at the same time, during the hour and demie, the representatives of charitable organizations, the beneficiary, the refugee, without the presence of the minister-president of Saxe and the head of Heidenau.
It is important for the citizens in their colors to continue with the children's eyes, and they are not poured into all the shapes of the fair changers of the Avis, pense-t-elle. Les grincheux existeront toujours et elle prefere songer à la majorityité, silencieuse, qui n'est pas hostile aux étrangers.
Christine de Maizières, The Balkan route
The camera pans across the square and focuses on the demonstration march heading towards the reception center. Several police cars cordon off the area. Suddenly, passersby recognize her. Whistles can be heard. From the right, some shouts ring out:Traitor to the people, whore!“ [German in original]
The Chancellor walks past them unmoved. At the initial reception center, she takes an hour and a half to speak with representatives of aid organizations, volunteers, refugees, and, last but not least, with the Saxon Minister-President and the mayor of Heidenau.
She doesn't care about the angry citizens who are still shouting outside; she can't change their minds anyway, she says. There will always be troublemakers, and she prefers to think about the silent majority who are not hostile towards foreigners.
Konstantin Richter tells, among other things, the same story of the refugee crisis in The Chancellor: a fiction 3However, instead of external action, he focuses on Merkel's inner life. In the following example, Merkel sits in the center box of the Bayreuth Festival Theatre; unlike the French president in the subsequent example, she is portrayed with little artistic flair – she is prepared for Wagner's music drama as if it were any other agenda item.
The Chancellor had intended to skip the quieter passages of Tristan und Isolde to use the time to reflect on a few things. In the first act, she wanted to address the Greek bailout package. In the second act, she would turn to the high number of asylum seekers. And in the third act, before her death in love, she would surely have a few minutes to review the Minsk agreements once more, which were intended to secure peace in eastern Ukraine.
The Chancellor also wanted to listen a little. She liked classical music, especially opera. At least that's what it said on her website. Except she hadn't Tristan und Isolde She had seen it many times before. She was sufficiently familiar with the plot and its reception history. Furthermore, she had read the folder her staff had compiled. She would easily be able to answer any technical questions that might arise. In short, she could afford to dedicate some of her time to this. Tristan und Isolde was available to divert funds for work.
Konstantin Richter, The Chancellor: a fiction
Time and patience He commented wryly: "The journalist Konstantin Richter has now written a book that deals almost exclusively with Angela Merkel's inner life. His short novel..." The Chancellor It depicts a temporary snapshot, from the beginning of the so-called refugee crisis, through Merkel's pronouncement "We can do this," and the supposed opening of the borders, to the agreement with Turkey. It's probably only a matter of time before the first idiot angrily and triumphantly broadcasts some of the Chancellor's most private details contained in this novel in internet forums. But Richter wouldn't be at fault. He has cautiously labeled his book "fiction" and points out that it is not a "documentation of actual events." Where the journalist has to stop, because he can't know what other people really think, the omniscient narrator steps in and is free to invent everything. 4 Richter has the Chancellor read so much about herself that in the end she no longer knows what is reality and what is fiction: "The Chancellor had simply read too much and no longer knew what she remembered about herself and what she had merely learned about herself from Langguth, Boysen and Roll." 5 The fact that a genre comparable to the French presidential novel is largely absent from contemporary German literature is due to reasons that are as complex and historically rooted as they are comparatively revealing. How suitable the new Chancellor Olaf Scholz will prove to be for novelization, and thus also the relationship between politics and art after the Merkel era, remains to be seen.
It is therefore necessary to examine the mutual entanglement between political power and cultural-aesthetic, here fictional, representation in the form of praise for poets, patronage, copinage, or indeed a French presidential novel from the last terms of office in 2007, 2012, 2017, 2022 and already 2027 (in Houellebecq's latest novel). Annihilate), in the presidential novel Les 155 days of Marine Le Pen Under the pseudonym of Blaise de Monluc, a new cohabitation is even imagined, this time between Macron and Marine Le Pen. The presidential dystopias surrounding Marine Le Pen are updated in Gilles Gaetner's book. Le Monde selon Zemmour: récit imaginaire d'un rêve brisé From 2022, the author explores what would happen if the far-right candidate Eric Zemmour were elected president: passive resistance from the civil service, a revolt from the cultural world, security laws, deportations, a generally harsher legal system, and ultimately, the dissolution of parliament. The entanglements of literature and the presidency are part of the Republic's political culture: the commitment to French culture. Roman national This also includes, especially for presidential candidates with a migration background like Nicolas Sarkozy or Eric Zemmour, a list of great hommes de lettres, as in Zemmour's conclusion. La France n'a pas dit son dernier mot:
I have two lands conquered in France, including Alsace, the Corse and Provence, that I have always considered that I have an infinite opportunity and an insignia of honor that is the compatriot of Pascal and Descartes, Richelieu and Chateaubriand, Bonaparte and Flaubert, Lavoisier and Hugo. etc.
Pourtant, chaque jour, notre pays se livre à la détestation acharnée de son histoire, à la criminalization systématique de ses héros. Ecoles, universities, media, just as president of the Republic, all the institutions in France and the generations that are on the right.
Eric Zemmour, La France n'a pas dit son dernier mot 6
I, who come from a country conquered by France, such as Alsace, Corsica, or Provence, have always considered it an infinite happiness and an incomparable honor to be a compatriot of Pascal and Descartes, Richelieu and Chateaubriand, Bonaparte and Flaubert, Lavoisier and Hugo, etc.
Nevertheless, our country engages in the relentless disregard of its history and the systematic criminalization of its heroes on a daily basis. Schools, universities, the media, right up to the President of the Republic – all institutions spit on France and the generations that created it.
Zemmour's patriotic placement of himself in an illustrious lineage is semantically precise; he himself was born in Montreuil, but the fact that his Jewish parents of Algerian origin were able to come to France as early as 1952 is a belated consequence of the Crémieux Decree of 1870, which granted French citizenship to Jews in the North African colonies. As a presidential candidate, Zemmour echoes demands from the bourgeois camp (for example, from Sarkozy or Fillon in their campaign speeches and books) that French institutions, such as history lessons in schools, should once again be patriotically oriented instead of critically examining, for instance, their own history. His rhetorical escalation of the institutional lineage culminates in a direct attack on the president, to whom Zemmour also (and especially to Macron during election campaigns, and to whom, for example, the "Report on Colonial Looted Art" he commissioned) is directed at spitting on the patriotic lineage in which his political opponent had previously positioned himself.
Macron, too, has succumbed to the staging of the president's close ties to the nation's "great poets." Johan Faerber analyzes this in The grand écrivain, this névrose national A media-staged event took place in 2017 to document the funeral of writer and Académie member Jean d'Ormesson, who died at the age of 92. Faerber describes the solemn live broadcast from the courtyard of the Invalides as a two-person performance: the deceased poet and the young president, who, with a powerful gesture, places a simple pencil on d'Ormesson's grave.
Emmanuel Macron, the young president, s'avance, d'un air grave. The impression d'être depends on the literature. Il en est saisi. The face is not the same as the moment without meaning is important. Il sursignifie la sobriété pour dire combien, à la vérité et par génie du contraste des communicants, c'est la Grandeur qu'il faut voir à chaque instant. Combien être modeste pour un president, c'est savoir s'incliner devant le Grand corps mort du Grand écrivain. Au Grand homme, la patrie et son jeune president éternellement reconnaissants – the temps des actualités.
Johan Faerber, The grand écrivain, this névrose national 7
Emmanuel Macron, the young president, steps forward with a solemn expression. He feels as if he is standing before literature itself. He is moved by it. His face says nothing, except that the moment is undoubtedly important. He overemphasizes his composure, to suggest that, in truth, and because of the brilliant contrast between the communicators, it is greatness that must be seen in every moment. How much humility for a president means bowing before the great, dead body of the great writer. The fatherland and its young president are eternally grateful to the great man – the news.
Faerber is not concerned with exposing presidential pomp, but rather asks in his book why readers and the public alike cultivate this “national neurosis”:
Si, like Leïla Slimani and Marie Darrieussecq, are such a great écrivain paraît impossible à rassasier, the stupéfiante acceptance par tous de la comédie autour de son intronisation comme telle témoigne d'un désir symétrique au premier, dynamique et clef de voûte de la persistence of the question of great creativity in the contemporary champion. This, too, is the same as the public, the readers: it is not possible for the écrivains to désirer être Grands écrivains. Les Français veulent un Grand écrivain, Macron lui-même desire un Grand écrivain. The wish is to honor the memory of this person, for the sake of his life, as President Grande. Car ce que démontre l'enterrement de d'Ormesson, dans toute sa parodie qui s'ignore cruellement et joyeusement, c'est combien, à la vérité, ce n'est pas uniquement sa soif personnelle mais notre soif commune de Grands écrivains qui est impossible à rassasier.
Johan Faerber, The grand écrivain, this névrose national 8
When, as with Leïla Slimani and Marie Darrieussecq, their thirst to be a Great Writer seems impossible to quench, the astonishing acceptance of the comedy surrounding their enthronement as such by everyone testifies to a symmetrical desire that is dynamic and the key to the continued existence of the question of the Great Writer in the contemporary field. This other desire is the desire of the public, the readers: it is not only writers who aspire to be a Great Writer. The French desire a Great Writer; Macron himself desires a Great Writer. He wishes to honor the memory of the one who, through the play of mirrors, will make his presidency a great one. For what d'Ormesson's funeral, in all its cruelly joyful, self-ignoring parody, reveals is that it is not only his personal thirst, but our collective thirst for Great Writers that cannot be quenched.
The presidential novel, in a sense, bears witness in a chiastic inversion to what the laid-down pencil is at the state funeral of the grand écrivain: a fusion of canon and power, of writer and president. In an interview with Faerber, Christine Marcandier asked why presidents like De Gaulle, Giscard, and Mitterrand sought prestige through instrumentalized literature and whether Macron would one day publish his own memoirs: “To be a great politician and a great writer at the same time—that is the dream that has captivated the political and literary life of France since Napoleon. It is the absolute fantasy of the old century to conflate political and literary power in one and the same person, as if power could be illuminated by the supposed power of writing like never before. Hugo dreamed of it. Lamartine dreamed of it. Chateaubriand dreamed of it. There is no shortage of examples that vibrate with this union of head and body, considered sacred and highly regarded, to create the ultimate embodiment: that of the leader, the magician.” 9 In which literary forms can this national fantasy be systematized?
All the art of politics: Types of presidential novels
As far as I can see, no typology of the recent political novel in France exists to date. Within this broad field of narrative social models, the presidential novel also forms a subset with subgroups that can only be roughly outlined here:
a. The novel of manners or social commentary, in the Balzacian sense, usually weaves in political events to link 'private' or provincial stories with the grand national narrative. Presidents appear here in the background, as if in a news broadcast, evoking their own historical images in the reader. Here are two excerpts from novels by Karine Tuil and Nicolas Mathieu. We don't need to decide here whether certain passages in a novel justify classifying the entire work as a presidential novel, especially when names like De Gaulle or Mitterrand are only used metonymically for a specific period, but it is striking how frequently French presidents appear in these novels. Let's take Karine Tuil's novel. L'Insouciance Using the struggle for upward mobility, returning soldiers from the Afghan War, religious terrorism, online defamation, and other social conflicts as examples, betrayal is conceptualized here anecdotally. In the phone conversation, one character represents faith in friendship, while the other adopts the perspective of a Machiavellian strategist.
The device confines the night to the back, on the phone, to Laurence Corsini, the soul of the soul is avoir envoyé a message amical lorsque son départ définitif après un mois de mise au placard avait été annoncé: « La trahison, elle a été le fait de mes Americans. » The Rire de Corsini is available in combination. « Tes amis ? Est-ce tu sais ce que François Mitterrand avait dit de la politique pendant l'été 1988 à son chef de cabinet, Jean Glavany, qui venait de perdre les élections législatives en Hautes-Pyrénées? Il lui avait dit: "Ne croyez pas que la loyauté soit la règle en politique. Elle est l'exception. La règle, c'est la trahison." It is a part of the art of politics that constructs rapports of forces that you met at the end of the attacks. Don't worry about constructing these rapports, it's all. »
Karine Tuil, L'Insouciance
That very evening, upon his return, he confided this to Laurence Corsini on the phone—one of the few who had sent him a friendly message when his final departure after a month in obscurity was announced: “The betrayal, it was committed by my friends.” He had heard Corsini’s laughter through the receiver. “Your friends? Do you know what François Mitterrand said to his chief of staff, Jean Glavany, who had just lost the parliamentary elections in Hautes-Pyrénées, about politics in the summer of 1988? He had told him: ‘Don’t think that loyalty is the rule in politics. It’s the exception. The rule is betrayal.’ And he added that the art of politics lies in building power structures that protect you from betrayal. You simply failed to build those structures.”
In this quote (I could not find a historical reference), Mitterrand is presented as a strategist of the art of politics, precisely on the threshold of his second term in office: protection against betrayal and the preservation of power also take precedence over substantive conviction or moral values in Karine Tuil's book.
Another example from Nicolas Mathieu's novel this year, Connemara, addresses the second round of the 2017 presidential elections between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen. “Et votez bien!” (And vote well!), based on the observation of how this trope developed from the ubiquitous media endorsement, Mathieu perhaps somewhat simplistically contrasts the indirect speech of the concerned mayor with the silent generations of voters and their grim, temporary triumph over the elites:
— Et votez bien! Gueula Didier, the grand frère célibataire déjà passablement éméché.
The gens trouvèrent ça drôle, d'autres moins.
Depuis que Marine Le Pen s'était qualifiée au second tour, this phrase était devenue le mantra du pays. Dans les journaux, sur les réseaux, à la télé, importants divers et leaders d'opinion présumés se succédaient sans trêve pour décortiquer les causes du désastre et gourmander la nation. The mayor of Cornécourt is like me, who has no etiquette and does not have a political background (dixit), and everything is a small couple after the ceremony. The fall is a fair barrage, for the Republic and our children, on a child who has a fire like this, which has the regards of the entire world that is braqués on France, but it is also the case that the color falls, the difficulties of the gens, etc. Les Invités l'avaient écouté poliment avant de vider les lieux dans un piétinement calme émaillé de murmures sombres. Les vieux surtout semblaient s'alarmer de la situation, eux qui pourtant étaient les moins concernés par l'avenir. Chez les plus boys en revanche, et les hommes surtout, ce remue-ménage suscitait une sorte de jubilation mauvaise. C'était tout de même beau pour une fois de voir la panic en haut lieu, le prêchi-prêcha affolé des bien lotis. Leur tour de sentir le sol meuble sous leurs pieds. Pour deux semaines, the order of choice is suspended, the forces are inversable.
Nicolas Mathieu, Connemara
“And vote well!” shouted Didier, the single older brother, who was already quite drunk.Some people found it funny, others less so.
Since Marine Le Pen qualified for the second round of voting, this phrase had become the country's mantra. In newspapers, on social media, and on television, prominent figures and supposed opinion leaders took turns incessantly dissecting the causes of the disaster and vilifying the nation. Even the mayor of Cornécourt, who was non-partisan and not politically active, joined in. (dixit)After the ceremony, he had performed his own little couplet. A dam had to be built, for the Republic and our children; one couldn't play with fire like this, especially since the eyes of the whole world were on France, even though, of course, one had to hear the anger, the difficulties of the people, and so on. The guests had listened to him politely before clearing the rooms in a quiet, low-pitched murmur. The older people, in particular, seemed alarmed, even though they were the least worried about the future. Among the younger people, especially the men, the excitement triggered a kind of wicked cheer. It was nice, after all, to see panic at the top for once, the panicky preaching of the wealthy. Now it was their turn to feel the soft ground beneath their feet. For two weeks, the order of things seemed suspended, the powers reversible.
the novel Connemara, which actually tells the very personal story of the returning Hélène's reunion in the provinces with Christophe, who had never left the backwater of her youth, here lets political speech rain down as a cacophony on a torn nation; ultimately, only sport, which plays a fundamental role in the book, grants the torn French people moments of unity.
Au mariage comme ailleurs, on ne pouvait éviter longtemps d'aborder ce sujet. Les têtes étaient si farcies de sondages, les esprits tellement gavés d'analyses et de ciphers. This interminable campaign takes place tordu les nerfs de tout un people. Mais dans this immense rafle des consciences, the demeurait presqu'autant de vues que de Français. Ainsi, certains available regardé the debate de l'entre-deux-tours, d'autres pas. I have access to a loud voice and JT and others who speak plus one of the speakers. Macron has his fans, Le Pen has his sympathizers. Les militants s'obnubilaient chacun dans son couloir. Les niches, les variants, les groupuscules, les singularités pullulaient sous the microscope des analystes qui feignaient de tout comprendre. The gens bien intentionnés plaidaient pour plus d'education, de moyens, de temps, d'écoute. D'autres plus sévères ne voyaient que déclin, minage, recul et prônaient de cruels tours de vis. Les blasés n'y croyaient plus. Les optimistes compulsifs rêvaient pour la millième fois d'hypothétiques refondations. The part and the other parts of the part are croyait morales et qui, bien souvent, relevaient plus platement de l'origine, de la geography, du stufe scolaire ou de la fortune, des acharnés crachaient leur dégoût du camp d'en face, symétriques dans le rejet, également convaincus, all malheureux and crevant de certitudes.
Nicolas Mathieu, Connemara
At weddings and other occasions, the topic couldn't be avoided for long. Minds were so full of polls, thoughts so crammed with analyses and figures. The endless campaign had frayed the nerves of an entire nation. But in this massive assault on consciousness, there were almost as many opinions as there are French people. Some had watched the debates between the two rounds of voting, others hadn't. Some never missed a news broadcast, others wanted nothing more to do with it. Macron had his fans, Le Pen her sympathizers. The activists were preoccupied with themselves, each in their own niche. Under the microscope of the analysts who claimed to understand everything, there was a teeming array of niches, variations, groupings, and singularities. Well-meaning people advocated for more education, more resources, more time, more listening. Others, more rigorous, saw only decline, undermining, and regression and argued for a brutal tightening of the screws. The jagged ones no longer believed in it. The compulsive optimists dreamed for the thousandth time of hypothetical new ventures. On both sides of these dividing lines, which they considered moral but which were often based more on origin, geography, level of education, or wealth, the die-hards spat out their disgust for the other side, symmetrical in their rejection, equally convinced, all unhappy and crumbling under the weight of their certainties.
b. The political novel, more so than the novel of manners, focuses on the dynamics of the political system, for example intrigues, election campaigns, career paths, in order to illustrate a particular interpretation of the world, from activist engagement to disillusioned nihilism, from concrete ideologies or grotesque comedy to cool observation.
For example, statesman and former judge Jean-Louis Debré published his presidential novel in 2020. The rumor a statement on the blurring of truth and rumor in the mediatized world. In a report by Nouvel Observateur In 2018, the politician already addressed the issue of vigilantism, which increasingly threatens to replace judicial work: “The demand for transparency for all citizens is one of the cornerstones of democracy. This means that those who break the law must be punished. However, this requires adherence to legal and procedural rules so that victims have the opportunity to file a complaint and defendants have the opportunity to express their views. It is the judge's job to determine the responsibilities of each side. Transparency is not what we are experiencing. Rumors are replacing evidence, one-sided denunciation is replacing adversarial debate, suppressing the presumption of innocence, and conviction without a verdict is one-sided and public, even after the court has ruled. Where is the legal force of the verdict? We are no longer operating within a process that must respect the various parties, one based on judicial investigation, but rather in a process of revenge and retribution. Where is the demand for transparency from those who demand it? Vigilante justice is replacing the Judge. History shows where all this can lead.” 10
The publisher's summary makes the connection clear: "Who is behind the rumor that the head of state, despite his young age, is seriously ill and may be prevented from running for re-election? The political world is in turmoil, with many having an interest in maintaining this rumor in the run-up to the new presidential elections." 11
The presenter of 13 hours of TF1 announced that the president of the Republic was present, at the matinée, in Tourcoing, or a part of the residents with a small déjeuner in the social center of the Bourgogne district. The journalist charged the official placement, correspondent of the chain, precisely that the chef de l'État a pu ainsi se rendre compte des « actions concrètes » mises en place pour lutter against the décrochage scolaire, soutenir la promotion de la citoyenneté et l'égalité femmes-hommes. It also, ajoute-t-elle, « échangé très simplement » with les habitants, quii ont surtout demandé des new de sa santé en lui souhaitant un prompt rétablissement. The president visited a company with the professional insertion of the residents of the district. It's a challenge, and there's a question about it, too, on the tongues that have a high quality of health. A woman with a similar draw and a package of chicory torréfiée in the distance Cela avait guéri son mari. The chef de l'Etat l'a remerciée de sa delicate attention.
This rumeur qui depuis un certain temps se propage sur les réseaux sociaux a manifestement bien été entendue dans la région, tient à souligner la journaliste, avant de rendre l'antenne à Paris, après avoir à peine évoqué the long discussions du president sur la politique en faveur de la réinsertion sociale.
Jean-Louis Debre, The rumor
The host of TF1's 13 p.m. news program reported that the President of the Republic traveled to Tourcoing early this morning, where he had breakfast with residents at the Bourgogne district's community center. The station's journalist and correspondent, tasked with covering the official trip, explained that the head of state was able to see for himself the "concrete measures" being taken to combat school dropout, support the promotion of citizenship, and foster gender equality. She added that he also simply chatted with the residents, who primarily inquired about his health and wished him a speedy recovery. The President then visited a company dedicated to the professional integration of residents from the neighborhood. There, he received a warm welcome, and once again, the topic of conversation was his health. One woman even presented him with a package of roasted chicory coffee, telling him that it had cured her husband. The head of state thanked them for this attention.
The journalist emphasized that this rumor, which has been circulating on social networks for some time, was obviously well disseminated in the region before returning to Paris.
Without giving too much away, the novel presents a president in a time of targeted scandals or independently propagated rumors, and the novel ends with rumor as a political instrument:
This importer has this rumeur ne repose sur aucune preuve: elle est l'instrument qui doit lui permettre d'en finir politiquement avec Polès. C'est le but qu'il s'est fixé, et il emploiera tous les moyens pour l'atteindre, heureux de constater que le pouvoir a repris la maîtrise des événements après avoir vérifié que la rumeur, même fausse, peut être en politique une arme de destruction efficace.
Jean-Louis Debre, The rumor
He doesn't care that there's no evidence for this rumor: it's the tool he intends to use to politically eliminate Polès. He's pleased that those in power have regained control of events, having realized that even false rumors can be an effective weapon of destruction in politics.
Another example of a presidential political novel with a special setting would be Charles Roquin. King From 2022: the French pretender to the throne, Louis (XXII.) de Bourbon, enters the presidential election campaign in his novel (the Alliance Royale is indeed an active monarchist party in France).
« Eh ouais! s'exclama John. Sauf que le vieux n'était pas fou… ! En tout cas pas sterile. Il a bien eu un fils, trois même. Mais vu le bordel de l'époque - je passe les détails, quand on sait qu'un royaliste a fini président de la République, on se dit que les gens étaient vraiment paumés… Vu la connerie de ses contemporary, donc, Henri V a préféré cacher ses enfants. Son testament les exhorte, eux et leurs descendants, à ne dévoiler leur essence royale que le jour où leur peuple en sera digne. Et ce jour…
– Laisse-moi deviner, c'est aujourd'hui? »
Insensible to mon irony, John répliqua très sérieusement:
« Non. C'était il ya cinq ans. A certain Louis, who depuis sa naissance passait pour un noblaillon de province, limite un péquenaud, a révélé qu'il était the descendant direct du comte de Chambord: son arrière-arrière-arrière-petit-fils par une succession continue d'aînés mâles faisant de lui le seul, l'unique, l'irréfragable proprietaire du royaume de France. »
Charles Roquin, King
“Yes!” John exclaimed. “Only the old man wasn’t mad…! Certainly not barren. He did have a son, three in fact. But given the chaos of the time—I’ll skip the details—when you consider a Royalist becoming President of the Republic, you’d think people were truly bewildered… Given the idiocy of his contemporaries, Henry V preferred to keep his children hidden. His will admonishes them and their descendants to reveal their royal nature only on the day their people are worthy. And that day…”"Let me guess: is it today?"Unfazed by my irony, John replied very seriously:
“No. It was five years ago. A certain Louis, who since birth had been considered a provincial minor nobleman, bordering on the backwoodsman, revealed that he was the direct descendant of the Count of Chambord: his great-great-great-grandson through a continuous line of firstborn males, making him the sole, irrefutable owner of the Kingdom of France.”
Pascale Boniface, a renowned political scientist specializing in international relations, publishes his novel The drunken BoatIn it, he introduces President Alexandre Ronac (a hint of Mac-ron) who, as a political outsider, was surprisingly elected with his reform agenda but now faces a wave of Islamist attacks. As a consequence, society drifts further and further to the extreme right, and Boniface's analysis is described in the publisher's announcement as both realistic and playfully very close to real events: "How will the various protagonists position themselves, torn between convictions, beliefs, tactical positioning, and short-term interests? Pascal Boniface describes this relentless development hyperrealistically and leads us into a captivating narrative where tragic situations, delightful portraits, and surprising twists intertwine." 12 The dramatis personae, which the author introduces at the beginning, provide a scenic panorama of the political system, including lobbyists and pressure groups:
Political Responsibles | President of the Republic, Alexandre Ronac
Ministers | External affairs: Dominique Lazarais • Interior: Julien Granzaud • Sports: Jean-Marc Noirot
Parliamentarians
Groupe Renouveau | François Valchaud • Erwann Lheureux • Céleste Métayer • Gilles Cornier Boulu • Christophe Garnier • Laurence Rochereau
Groupe Union des Républicains (UDR) | Marc Siba
Far-right leaders | Eric Mella • Eugène Malourd
Opinion leaders
SOS Laïcité | Frédéric Carel • Rémy Hastin • Ahmed Moktar
Essayists | Gérald Plagest • Charles-Henri Debaine • Bernard Meyer • Samia Tazir
Academics | Damien Cordier • Cecile Lorend
journalists | Pierre Wiedmann • Vincent Crimaud • Alexis Montguillot
Salafists | Mohammed
Abroad | Emir de Daesh • Abu al-Tikriti
One reader commented on Amazon: “It’s a novel, but so true! Pascal Boniface, an excellent geopolitical scientist, shows us his talent as a writer with a debut novel that captivates from beginning to end. Within its pages, one discovers a subtle and insightful analysis of politicians, journalists, polemicists, pseudo-experts, academics… no one is spared.” 13
Three minutes before the coup d'envoi, all the people came and the spectators of the tribune returned to the president's tribune who were brusquemented. The president of the Republic has his own apparition, accompagné de celui de la Fédération française de football.
Alexandre Ronac is a real amateur football player. Venir au stade n'était pas pour lui une de ces ennuyeuses obligations protocolaires, mais un véritable plaisir. It's easy to control your emotions. The president, the rest of the supporter, may not be able to react in a way that is also demonstrative in his youth. In the world, it is available to the children who are trying to think that football is a "beaufs" affair, a popular sports game that allows them to hear what they are talking about on the high street of the social barrier. It's passionate about the foot and looks like it's also incompatible with the water and the fire. There are several sifflets, pas mal d'applaudissements, mais protestataires et fans prenaient tous des photos qu'ils enverraient immédiatement sur les réseaux sociaux ou à leurs proches, preuves de leur présence à cet événement important. The tribune is a garnie of ministres, comme à chaque fois que the president venait. Tous n'aimaient pas le foot, loin de là, mais c'était l'occasion de voir the president, d'échanger avec lui au buffet, or simplement d'être vu par lui. Lors d'un match precédent, il ne vait pas être present au stade car il était à l'étranger, mais une modification d'agenda de dernière minute lui avait finalement permis d'y assister. It is available before the Fédération protocol during the match. The new modification of the agenda is available to the public, in which the hour is available, and now there are two demands from the ministries and secretaries of the state, which has a coup that can be irrepressible in the event of a match that does not conflict with the matin meme. Les républiques et les presidents pass, the phénomène de cour demeure. Heureusement que le protocole de la FFF était d'un parfait professionnalisme, digne de celui du Quai d'Orsay, and savait faire face à ce type d'imprévu. Et savait parfois dire non.
Pascale Boniface, The drunken Boat
Three minutes before kickoff, all their neighbors and most of the spectators in their section turned towards the presidential stand, which had suddenly filled up. The President of the Republic had appeared, along with the President of the French Football Federation.
Alexandre Ronac had been a true football fan since his early youth. For him, going to the stadium wasn't a tiresome protocol obligation, but a genuine pleasure. He simply had to keep his emotions in check. He was president, he remained a fan, but he could no longer react as demonstratively as in his youth. Back then, he had faced the scorn of those who thought football was for "rednecks," a sport too popular to be despised if one wanted to show one was on the right side of the social divide. Football enthusiasm and belonging to the elite were as incompatible as oil and water. There were a few whistles and not much applause, but both protesters and fans took photos, which they would immediately send to social media or their relatives to prove they had been present at this important event. The stands were filled with ministers, as they were for every presidential visit. Not everyone liked football, but it was an opportunity to see the president, to chat with him at the buffet, or simply to be seen by him. He wasn't supposed to be at the stadium for an earlier match, as he was abroad, but a last-minute change of plans had finally allowed him to attend. He had informed the Federation's protocol office that afternoon. The news of the change had apparently leaked, because within the next hour, there were twelve requests from ministers and state secretaries, all suddenly possessed by an irrepressible urge to watch a match they hadn't cared about that morning. Republics and presidents come and go, but the courtly phenomenon remains. Fortunately, the FFF's protocol was as professional as that of the Quai d'Orsay and knew how to handle such unforeseen circumstances. And sometimes, it could even say no.
A special case of the political novel is the roman à clef, often published under pseudonyms, in which insiders (or at least those claimed by the publisher) subtly establish a connection to investigative journalism. Their literary quality can be quite secondary. For example, Jupiter publishes his book, which is presented as a roman à clef, only under a pseudonym. The next opportunity opportunity: an electoral campaign for France from 2021. Here, the progressive Émile Beaufort and the Gaullist Jean Chotard, with his tendency towards populism, are pitted against each other as candidates. The historian and memoirist of Jacques Chirac, Jean-Luc Barré, has for his part indicated that his novel Le corps d'origine from 2021, the scandal surrounding the presidential candidate of the Republicans François Fillon is freely inspired.
The chef de l'État, Louis Moulins-Duthilleul, ayant dû renoncer, à près de quatre-vingts ans, à briguer a second mandate, on voit en Guillaume Roussel a sorte d'héritier naturel. Not a single ensemble in a great place, in all the cases, for lui succéder. Roussel a quitté ses fonctions six mois avant l'échéance to prepare the future presidential campaign. À cinquante-huit ans, faute de rival crédible et fort d'un bilan à Matignon jugé satisfaisant dans les sondages d'opinion, il a toutes chances de remporter l'élection. D'autant que sa dessignation comme candidate, obtenue à la quasi-unanimité, a pris des allures de sacre lors du congrès de la Droite populaire. A powerful electrical war machine looks out from the order of the march.
The Élysée lui semble donc tout acquis quand au cours de la première quinzaine de fevrier, à quelques semaines du premier tour fixé au 20 avril, a mauvaise rumeur s'est mise à circuler dans diverse milieux Parisiens.
Jean-Luc Barré, Le corps d'origine
Since President Louis Moulins-Duthilleul, at almost eighty years old, was unable to run for a second term, Guillaume Roussel is seen as a natural heir. No one seems better suited to succeed him. Roussel resigned from his post six months before the election to prepare for the upcoming presidential campaign. At 58, with no credible rival and a satisfactory record in Matignon according to opinion polls, he has every chance of winning. His nomination as candidate, which was almost unanimous, was a kind of coronation at the "Droite populaire" (Popular Right) party congress. A powerful campaign machine was immediately set in motion.
The Élysée Palace seemed secure for him when, in the first half of February, a few weeks before the first round of voting on April 20, a nasty rumor began circulating in various Parisian circles.
Marianne Payot sums up the reader's gleeful delight: "Guillaume Roussel, the leader of the Stamm Corps, is a master of double-dealing: everything about his public persona—a politician of high integrity and a good Catholic family man—is a lie. This duplicity has served the Énarque, former prime minister and frontrunner of the center-right in the upcoming presidential elections, well. But just over a month before the election, a nasty rumor surfaces: he is allegedly involved in the murder of a Moroccan escort. Only his feared lawyer and his wife, who is anything but unassuming, remain loyal to him. We admit that nothing about this story is particularly moral, which makes it all the more entertaining." 14 The amoral is also present in the work of Joseph Macé-Scaron, The chef's surprise from 2021, playfully staged, in which the outsider presidential candidate Benjamin Strada stages a game of deceptions like a play.
Marie Tanguy explains her text even more explicitly than Barré. Confusions to the roman à clef of one's own work in the election campaign team of Working:
The conscience of the enjeux and the stress paroxysmique poussaient chacun à thunder le meilleur de lui-même. Le 99 rue de l'abbé Groult était, plus encore qu'à l'accoutumée, a large ruche bourdonnante. On the floor, helpers, salaries, experts and conseillers s'affairaient, fiévreux, efficaces, concentrés, afin que la press conference du lendemain soit un succès. This is what it is all about under the term of the current accumulator: EM n'a pas de programme.
Marie Tanguy, Confusions
The awareness of what was at stake and the paroxysmal stress drove everyone to give their best. Rue de l'abbé Groult 99 was, even more than usual, a large, buzzing beehive. On every floor, helpers, staff, experts, and consultants worked feverishly, efficiently, and with intense focus to ensure the press conference the next day was a success. For it was this press conference that was meant to put an end to the recurring accusation: EM has no program.
For the Nouvel Observateur Tanguy presented himself with this “roman-témoignage” 15 into a group of disappointed former Macron supporters. 16 At the same time, the book is an exposé of political marketing and unsubstantial storytelling.
— Concentrons-nous. Je reprends. There are 32 pages, this is the program, and this is the project.
— Le 32 pages, this is the tract en fait.
— Oui! Exactly! Tirage 8 million copies. Diffusion marchés, métro, boîtes aux lettres. Tractage, quoi.
— Ensuite, il ya le livre. The book is the opposite of the nation.
— Is it different in your project?
— Attends, attends, là, c'est la base. Do this as part of the project, the opposite of which is the nation.
— Et donc le contrat avec la nation, c'est le coeur du projet, celui sur lequel lequel le president engagera son capital politique.
— Vu qu'il présidera, et qu'il ne gouvernera pas, tout ça.
— En gros, le taux de TVA appliqué à l'audiovisuel public, this is the project. La réforme des retreats to accommodate les mutations du travail, c'est le contrast with the nation.
— What about the objects?
— Evidence. Pour illustrer the rupture of the demarche. This is a small book, a quarantaine de pages max. The faut l'écrire avant la fin de la semaine (regard appuyé dans ma direction).
Marie Tanguy, Confusions
– Let's concentrate. I'll start again. There are the 32 pages, that's the program, that's the draft.
– The 32 pages are actually the election brochure.
– Yes, exactly! Print run of 8 million copies. Distribution in markets, on the subway, in mailboxes. Tractage, whatever.
– Then there is the book. The book is the contract with the nation.
– Is this something different from the project?
– Wait, wait, here's the foundation. You have the project on one side and the contract with the nation on the other.
– And the treaty with the nation is the centerpiece of the project, on which the president will invest his political capital.
– Because he will be chairing and not governing, and so on.
– Broadly speaking, the VAT rate applied to public broadcasting is the project. The pension reform, intended to accompany the changing nature of work, is the contract with the nation.
– But do you really need two objects?
– Obviously. To illustrate the break in approach. It will be a small book, 40 pages at most. It has to be written by the end of the week (intense look in my direction).
c. The utopian, or in today's French context rather dystopian, presidential novel chooses a near future and presents alternative histories or polemical visions with varying degrees of critical or scandalous intent, for example, when warnings are issued about an Islamic or far-right candidate, or when societal developments are highlighted, such as the climate crisis, resource scarcity, or anti-democratic tendencies. The novel [title of novel] serves as an example. Le brun et le rouge named by Michèle Cotta and Robert Namias from 2020, which tells the story of the three dark years (2025 – 2028) of a France that slides into fascism within a few months: after the defeat of a young centrist president, Charlotte Despenoux becomes the young president from the far-right party LFD (France first).
Sur l'écran quii faisait face, les chains d'info diffusaient pour la énième fois la nécrologie du ministre de la Police. Mazaudet, Charlotte Despenoux, les deux étaient à ce point indissociables depuis the campaign of 2025 qu'en visionnant ces images of the president crut voir sa propre histoire. Trois ans. Three years later, Charlotte opened the Lourd portal in the park. En remontant l'allée jusqu'à la terrasse, elle se revit ce jour de May 2025. The campaign is available in a rude manner, but it is also possible. La France à genoux allait enfin se relever et les Français retrouver leur fierté noyée depuis des décennies dans un pays sans âme ni frontières.
Michèle Cotta and Robert Namias, Le brun et le rouge
On the screen in front of her, the news channels broadcast the police minister's obituary for the umpteenth time. Mazaudet, Charlotte Despenoux—the two had been so inextricably linked since the 2025 campaign that, watching the images, the president felt as if she were seeing her own story unfold. Three years. Just three years, Charlotte had thought as she stepped through the heavy gate to the park. As she walked up the driveway to the terrace, she saw herself again on that day in May 2025. The campaign had been tough, but it had been a time of unlimited possibilities. The France on its knees would finally rise again, and the French would rediscover their pride, which had been drowned for decades in a country without a soul or borders.
d. Other special forms of the presidential novel, such as Marc Dugain's election campaign political thriller Trilogie de l'emprise The works on party leader Philippe Launay, or Patrick Rambaud's numerous satirical "chronicles" of French presidents Sarkozy, Hollande, and Macron published by Grasset, are as revealing from a cultural studies perspective as they are, in some cases, difficult to assess from a literary standpoint. Over the years, however, Rambaud himself seems to have lost his sense of humor in the face of these developments: "More than Emmanuel I, it is the era that bores him, even drives him to despair. It suffices to read at the end of the volume his devastating rebuttal to the citizen Virginie Despentes, 'Madonna of the Victims'—who was his neighbor at the Académie Goncourt and whose 'we stand up, we piss off, we shout and annoy you!' he condemns—to gauge his gradual and Chaplin-esque detachment from modern times." 17
e. Finally, in the memorial presidential novel, a historical figure is placed at the center, with whom the author may well be acquainted—I will include Yasmina Reza, Laurent Binet, or Philippe Besson in this category—thus emphasizing an identity between the narrative voice or cast of characters on the one hand and the political present on the other. The personalization of the literary and the political elements complement each other here.
The whole shape of your inventoryReza, Binet, Besson
Plus, I'm talking to my friend Marc in a café.
The whole shape of your inventory. Les écrivains ont en commun avec les tyrans de plier le monde à leur desir.
I say yes.
Yasmina Reza, L'aube le soir et la nuit
Later, I chat with my friend Marc in a café.
You will definitely invent him. Writers have in common with tyrants that they bend the world to their will.
Yes, I say.
When Reza interviewed presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy for a year for her book L'aube le soir et la nuit The book, which began in 2007, raised a wide range of expectations. Mirja Kuckuk summarized: "Some wanted to read a razor-sharp portrait, others sensational revelations. Both were disappointed. Intelligent, superficial, ambitious, impatient, narcissistic, nervous, and sometimes like a small child – that's how the author experienced and described her subject, Sarkozy." 18 As in participatory war reporting in journalism, there are also more engaged sections like the following excerpt, but the author still maintains a detached observation of the candidate.
Dans les pages « Rebonds » de Liberation du 30 April, une chronique intitulée, « Pour Ségolène Royal, contre Nicolas Sarkozy », and sous-titrée: « an appeal of intellectuals before the second presidential tour ».
Je passe sur la faiblesse du texte car ce n'est pas mon sujet, pour m'intéresser aux signatures. A centaine de noms, la part écrivains, metteurs en scène, comédiens, cinéastes, musiciens or all simplement "artists". Par source étrangeté, des gens dont la fantasy est la raison d'être, dont la liberté et parfois la gloire consistent à s'être échappés du raisonnable, endossent avec this gravity furieuse le statut d'intellectuel?
Yasmina Reza, L'aube le soir et la nuit
In the “Rebonds” pages of Libération from April 30, there is a column entitled “For Ségolène Royal, against Nicolas Sarkozy” and the subtitle “A call from left-wing intellectuals before the second round of the presidential elections”.
I'll overlook the text's weaknesses, as that's not my focus, and turn to the signatures. Around a hundred names, most of them writers, directors, actors, filmmakers, musicians, or simply "artists." How strange it is that people whose raison d'être is imagination, whose freedom and sometimes their fame lie in having escaped reason, should assume the status of an intellectual with such furious earnestness.
The successful election appears in L'aube le soir et la nuit as a veritable alteration, one thinks of Kantorowicz's political theology thesis of the king's two bodies:
Sous the soleil de midi, longeant the cercle des présents, les presidents serrent les mains. The president is my leader, and I am serre. It is also, and I am also.
Yasmina Reza, L'aube le soir et la nuit
In the midday sun, around the circle of those present, the presidents shake hands. The president-elect extends his hand to me, and I shake it. He is now a different person, and I am a different person too.
Laurent Binet published his book in 2012. Nothing goes as planned about François Hollande, and here too, alongside narrative passages, one finds observations and analyses:
C'est là que je commence à percer l'un des secrets de sa rhétorique: dans le débat, François Hollande fonctionne comme au judo, c'est-à-dire qu'il utilise la force de l'adversaire. Il n'esquive pas les attacks mais au contraire les encaisse, les absorbe et les reprend à son profit. The process is a merit in its spectacular performance and great élégance. Dans Liberation, lorsque Nicolas Demorand l'accuse d'être un "Chirac de gauche inpérimenté", il dit: "Un de ces mots est devenu président de la République". Ce n'est déjà pas si mal… » The soir même, in the documentaire sur la primaire, on lui demande de commenter ces propos de Fabius: « Franchement, vous imaginez Hollande president? On reve! » Et lui de répondre, avec une ironie teintée de lyricisme: « Eh bien, je garde le mot: c'est un beau rêve. Je suis content qu'il y participe. » Enfin, le lendemain, lors des débats, il nous offers a version plus burlesque du procédé. Lorsqu'on lui reporte une attack de Ségolène Royal qui a dit: «Hollande, c'est un notable. Avec lui, c'est “dormez, braves gens!” », the response was: « Sur the question of the summer, I confirm, the time of sleep and the time to recover ! »
Laurent Binet, Nothing goes as planned
Here I begin to unravel one of the secrets of his rhetoric: In debate, François Hollande functions like a judo practitioner, that is, he uses his opponent's strength. He doesn't evade attacks, but on the contrary, absorbs them, seizes them, and turns them to his advantage. The method is both spectacular and elegant. When Nicolas Demorand accused him in Libération of being an "inexperienced left-wing Chirac," he said: "One of those words became President of the Republic. That's not so bad..." That same evening, in the documentary about the primaries, he was asked to comment on Fabius's words: "Honestly, can you imagine Hollande as president? One dreams!" To this, he replied with lyrically tinged irony: "Well, I'll keep my word: It's a beautiful dream. I'm glad he's participating." Finally, the next day, during the debate, he offered us a burlesque version of the process. When he was told of an attack by Ségolène Royal, who had said: “Hollande is a notary. With him it’s ‘Sleep, you good people!’” he replied cheerfully: “As for the question of sleep, I confirm that one must sleep from time to time in order to recover!”
The reception of Binet's presidential novel was mixed. Pierre Jassogne cited several arguments from the debate, particularly the lack of aesthetic freedom to offer new insights into literary fiction, he argues: "All in all, a terribly predictable book that will add to the already long list of essays and documents about François Hollande. Undoubtedly, the reason for this is an all-too-faithful reproduction of what Laurent Binet heard and saw during this campaign. For where one really wants to look behind the scenes of a presidential campaign, where one would have expected Laurent Binet to present this campaign to us in an unconventional way, the author is overtaken by the storytelling of a campaign that can be found in any newspaper. Hence the impression of a book that only records the small sentences and anecdotes, a text that is limited to a compilation of off-screen banter and jokes between politicians and journalists, a text that also appears as a kind of outlet, like the numerous tweets that characterized this election campaign." have." 19 Literature here degenerates into a mere reflection of a real-time flow of information about presidential gestures, as it fills the internet and media: "In doing so, Laurent Binet, unintentionally, participates in this 'peopolization' of politics, but above all in this new way of producing and consuming information, in which one finds the same phrases everywhere." 20
Philippe Besson makes no secret of his sympathy for Emmanuel Macron and his friendship with his wife Brigitte. In A character from a novel From 2017, he accompanied the candidate's election campaign. In 2018, the writer defended himself against accusations of collusion when he was appointed consul of Los Angeles. 21 Besson recounts how he came to write the book almost like a mythical calling scene:
Le soir du 30 août, Emmanuel M. apparaît sur le plateau du journal télévisé. It's 20 hours. The product is always there, in my opinion, a different choice. The apparatus provokes an illumination, a revelation. Je pense: cet homme sera president un jour. Et ce n'est pas à cause de ce qu'il dit, non, c'est à cause de l'image, de ce qui se dégage de l'image, en cet instant précis.
(Illumination, ai-je dit. Cela fait donc de moi un illuminé, j'en conviens.)
This is an irresistible impression that decides the book. Je songe: je vais écrire l'histoire de l'homme qui devient president.
Très vite, cependant, my mystique is corrected by my incurable lucidity and by the lois de la probabilité. I remember the fondamentaux: on a remporte pas une élection sans parti, sans troupes, sans argent, sans expérience, on a remporte pas a president à trente-neuf ans.
Alors je me dis: je vais au moins écrire une aventure. Une adventure dont j'ignore l'épilogue, mais dont je sais déjà qu'elle sera faite d'étapes, de rebondissements, de péripéties, de risques, d'obstacles, de franchises d'obstacles, de hasard, de nécessité. “The discovery of the passion of the inconvenient,” says Kundera.
I want to create a feeling. Et dans l'espérance, on entend le souffle, l'exaltation, le bouillonnement, on redoute les désillusions.
I want to describe the destination of a person and no other words in the fragmented destination, or anything, or accomplice.
Philippe Besson, A character from a novel
On the evening of August 30th, Emmanuel M. appeared on the newsreel stage. It was 20 p.m. Something strange happened to me. The appearance triggered an enlightenment, a revelation. I thought: This man will one day be president. And that wasn't because of what he said, no, it was because of the image, what the image radiated at that moment.
(Enlightenment, I said. So that makes me enlightened, I agree).
It is this impression of irresistibility that decides the book's fate. I muse: I will write the story of the man who becomes president.My mysterious impulse is very quickly corrected, however, by my incorrigible sobriety and the laws of probability. I return to the basics: You don't win an election without a party, without troops, without money, without experience; you don't win a presidential election at thirty-nine.
Then I tell myself: I will at least write one adventure story. An adventure whose epilogue I don't know, but which I already know will consist of stages, twists and turns, adventures, risks, obstacles, the overcoming of obstacles, chance, and necessity. "The passionate discovery of the unknown," said Kundera.
I will write a hope. And in hope, one hears the breath, the elation, the bubbling; one fears disillusionment.
I will write the fate of one character, and we will see whether it is a shattered, an unfinished, or a fulfilled fate.
Houellebecq, Knight of the Legion of Honour
The end of President Macron's five-year term has flooded French bookstores with books taking stock of his career; some also feature accounts from close associates or defectors. 22 In 2019, the President of the Republic awarded Michel Houellebecq, among others, the Order of Knight of the Legion of Honour, which is in Submission had predicted the election of a Muslim president for 2022 and in serotonin It seemed to foreshadow a protest movement like the Yellow Vests. However, as Michael Wurmitzer emphasized, Houellebecq does not make any predictions about the future in these narrative designs, but rather radically extrapolates current trends. 23 The new novel Annihilate This in turn puts a president at the center, easily recognizable as Macron, who might not be re-elected in 2027:
The presidential election was held in the six months of the main tenant, and the president, who was elected without difficulty, was also able to represent: the imprudent reform of the constitution in 2008, but there was no exercise plus the mandates presidents consécutifs.
Michel Houellebecq, Annihilate
The next presidential elections were now due to take place in less than six months, and the president, who would have been easily re-elected, was under no circumstances allowed to run again: since the unwise constitutional reform of 2008, no one was allowed to serve more than two consecutive terms as president.
Among the relatively few negative reviews of the book is the one by David Caviglioli in Nouvel Observateur Remarkably, the president is described here as "Machiavelli with a tendency towards Putin," who positions political chess pieces to secure his hold on office. 24 Adam Soboczynski reads the novel once again as a dramatization of decline, more of a lament than a pamphlet: “That the republic in this novel is on the brink of collapse is a foregone conclusion. Democracy is nothing more than a laughable spectacle, sluggish and outdated. The nation is drifting toward populism, and the president is to assume a far more dominant role in the future, through the abolition of the office of prime minister, than he already has in France. Perhaps this authoritarian turn can halt the disintegration, the atomization of the West, even revitalize it. The protagonists themselves don't quite believe it. In any case, the status quo is not worth protecting.” 25
Saddest in Annihilate Perhaps he is the puppet the president wants to use for five years so he can then take the reins again. Benjamin Sarfati is a star of television entertainment (in fact, Jean-Marie Bigard did consider a candidacy at one point). Judith von Sternburg discusses the political concepts behind Houellebecq's cast of characters: "The incumbent is banking on a constitutional amendment and a swift return. A 'post-democratic' development, as Paul Raison observes calmly. He is Juge's confidant and advisor—their surnames bring together the judge and reason. The fact that Le Maire, who is also active in literature, published the book 'Paul—A Friendship' two years ago is another clue that has garnered interest in France. After a few initial twists and turns, Paul emerges as the main character." 26 David Caviglioli's conclusion about the politically well-connected Houellebecq and his novel is bitter: "One expected a pulp novel, but instead finds oneself with a Macron-worshipping fan fiction worthy of a financial inspector's daydreams. Bruno Le Maire and Houellebecq have known each other since 2006. As chief of staff to Dominique de Villepin, Le Maire had helped Houellebecq [...], according to 'Le Monde'. This friendship is best described by Zemmour, again by him, in a scene that was spotted at a party organized by 'Valeurs actuelles' at the Winter Circus in 2019." 27
Finally, a reference to the grim record of the Macron years in Jean-Marc Parisis' novel. On va bouger ce putain de pays from 2022. Cyril Crâmon, investment banker and Enarque, in his thirties, has the ambition to become president:
Crâmon à une fenêtre du bureau d'angle donnant sur le jardin, les arbres, les fleurs… « J'ai menti, oui, les yeux dans les yeux, j'ai menti. J'ai menti comme tout le monde à all le monde. Et alors, source importance ? Les gens ne me crient plus, mais ils ne crient plus personne, plus à rien, nulle part. Ils ne crient même plus à ce qu'ils se racontent chez eux, dans leur lit ou ailleurs. Va parler d'avenir à des gens obsédés par l'Apocalypse, la mort de la planète, du travail, des Blancs, de la littérature, la mort de toutes et all. Do you see the table with your men? Les seniors: des andropausés en Stan Smith. Les jeunes: des agneaux ou des dingos. La youth, elle n'existe plus. The child, the face of the gauche... J'ai menti, oui, mais moins que les ministres. J'ai menti à des menteurs qui ne cessent de mentir sur moi… Le Braqueur, le Bankster, l'Imposteur, le Tyran, le Jupiter, l'Oligarque, le Pédé, le Fils à maman, l'Impuissant sans enfants, le Fossoyeur du pays, la Marionnette de l'État profond, le Traître et le Néantisé, le psychopathe… N'en jetez plus ! J'ai tout joué. En cinq ans, je suis passé du Surdoué au Naze integral. On me taxe de démesure, de sociopathy, d'hybris ! Pauvres cons, c'est la psychology et la fonction présidentielles qui sont démesurées, hors norme ! Does the president have the name of a candidate for health and pays for the reforms or vaccination? What president wants to save the destins? J'en connais, j'en ai connu. Je paie plus de vingt ans de presidence mesurée. Depuis Mitterrand… La vérité, Quentin, elle est de circonstances, comme toujours. The vérité, c'est que le program sur lequel j'ai été élu est saboté depuis deux ans par un virus auquel personne ne comprend rien. Deux ans, presque la moitié du quinquennat. C'est sans precédent. Also the chef d'état n'a été empêché à ce point, also n'a été autant critiqué, moqué, sarcasmé, exécré also injustement, also bestialement. On me tutoie, on me flanque des baffes, on me lance des œufs, on me grime en Hitler. Baba a peur, on me conseille de porter un gilet pare-balles… Mais toute passion est réversible. Les offensiveers compatiront, les injustes réhabiliteront, les haineux adoreront. Je les mènerai tous à résipiscence. Je ne lâcherai rien. »
Jean-Marc Parisis, On va bouger ce putain de Countries
Crâmon at a window of the corner office overlooking the garden, the trees, the flowers… “I lied, yes, face to face, I lied. I lied to everyone like everyone else. So what? People don’t believe me anymore, but they don’t believe anyone anymore, nothing, anywhere. They don’t even believe what they tell each other at home, in bed, or anywhere else. Go and talk to people about the future who are obsessed with the apocalypse, the death of the planet, of work, of white people, of literature, the death of everyone and everything. Did you see the picture with the men? The older ones: men with andropause à la Stan Smith. The young: lambs or lunatics. The young, they don’t exist anymore. The young: they were left-wing… I lied, yes, but less than the ministers. I lied to liars who won’t stop lying about me… The robber, the banker, the con man, the tyrant, Jupiter, the oligarch, The faggot, the mama's boy, the childless impotent man, the gravedigger of the country, the puppet of the deep state, the traitor and the denier, the psychopath… Enough! I played all those roles. In five years, I went from being a high-flyer to a full-blown Nazi. I'm accused of excess, sociopathy, hubris! Presidential psychology and the workings of the office are excessive, not in accordance with the norm! What president worthy of the name wouldn't try to save his country through reforms or vaccinations? What president would fail to set things right? I know such people, I've known such people. I'm paying the price for more than twenty years of a moderate presidency. Since Mitterrand… The truth, Quentin, is, as always, a product of circumstances. The truth is that the program on which I was elected has been sabotaged for two years by a virus that no one understands. Two years, almost half of the five-year term. That is Unprecedented. No head of state has been so obstructed, none so criticized, ridiculed, sarcastically mocked, so unjustly, so bestially despised. I am addressed informally, slapped, pelted with eggs, and vilified as Hitler. Baba is afraid; I'm advised to wear a bulletproof vest… But every passion is reversible. The insulters will feel pity, the unjust will be rehabilitated, the haters will worship. I will bring them all to their senses. I will not give up.
Quentin Ixe, a provincial with a Sciences Po degree, who had witnessed his previous political idol's downfall over a sex scandal, becomes Cyril Crâmon's enabler through political marketing and new media. However, as the president's special advisor, he then has to experience the world's downfall, with its various scandals, the Yellow Vest protests, Islamist attacks, and epidemics. Olivier Mony's review of this swan song of a five-year tenure evokes the image of an over-the-top theatrical performance: "It could therefore simply be another political farce in a time that promises to be rich in political farces. And yet..." On va bouger ce putain de pays Far more than that. Parisis unleashes his full verve, but also a certain and pleasing tenderness, concerned for his characters. He extracts from this material what makes it universal, and, as I said, first and foremost in a literary sense. The reader might sometimes think of a kind of Italian comedy, perhaps deliberately exaggerated, but from which the grotesque figures stand out. These young heroes are already old before the exercise of power makes them old. There is, of course, much that is ridiculous in this, and ultimately perhaps also a little of our universal humanity. 28
The French presidential novel has developed into a vibrant genre over the past 15 years. Clearly, in the attention economy of election campaigns, but also in the relationship between literary merit and engagement, there is a demand for humorous, dark, or detached portrayals of the Republic's political culture. The texts, which could only be briefly outlined in this broad overview, have, with few exceptions, not been translated into German. They constitute a valuable corpus for regional studies and comparative political science. From a literary studies perspective, they should be read in conjunction with commissioned biographies and political manifestos of presidential candidates, as well as with political novels beyond the presidential genre, and the public debates provoked by these narrative social constructs should also be considered. The writers (some of whom themselves come from political science or the political establishment) thus participate in res politica as republican literature in the broadest sense, situated between pamphlet and non-fiction, biography and social commentary. Finally, let us consider Jean Paul's German state novel. Titan Around 1800, where the protagonist Albano, in his confrontation with failed, because overly simplistic, figures, is ultimately meant to develop a harmonious education into a mature political subject, it becomes clear that the French presidential novel of the 21st century hardly wants to—or can afford—idealistic pronouncements and utopian content. For it largely paints a picture of the political ex negativo, or as Winston Churchill conceded: “Democracy is the worst form of government—apart from all the others that have been tried from time to time.” 29
Selected bibliography
- Barré, Jean-Luc. Le corps d'origine: roman. Paris: Grasset, 2021.
- Besson, Philippe. A character from a novelParis: Julliard, 2017.
- Binet, Laurent. Nothing goes as planned. Paris: Grasset, 2012.
- Boniface, Pascal. The drunken Boat. Paris: Armand Colin, 2021.
- Cotta, Michèle and Robert Namias. Le brun et le rouge: romanParis: Laffont, 2020.
- Debré, Jean-Louis. La Rumeur: romanParis: Laffont, 2020.
- Dugain, Marc. L'emprise: roman. Trilogie de l'emprise 1. Paris: Gallimard, 2014.
- Dugain, Marc. Quinquennate: a novel. Trilogie de l'emprise 2. Paris: Gallimard, 2015.
- Dugain, Marc. Ultime partie: roman. Trilogie de l'emprise 3. Paris: Gallimard, 2016.
- Gaetner, Gilles. Le Monde selon Zemmour: récit imaginaire d'un rêve briséMareuil, 2022.
- Houellebecq, Michel. Submission. Paris: Flammarion, 2015.
- Houellebecq, Michel. Annihilate. Paris: Flammarion, 2022.
- Jupiter. L'élection de la dernière chance: An elective campaign for sauver la FranceJupiter, 2021.
- Macé-Scaron, Joseph. The chef's surprise. L'Observatoire, 2021.
- Monluc, Blaise de, Les 155 days of Marine Le Pen: History of 1er gouvernement – Rassemblement national (24 June – 29 November 2022), Archipelago, 2021.
- Parisis, Jean-Marc. On va bouger ce putain de pays. Paris: Fayard, 2022.
- Philippe, Edouard and Gilles Boyer. Dans l'ombre: romanParis: JC Lattès, 2011.
- Rambaud, Patrick. Chronique du règne de Nicolas Ier. Paris: Grasset, 2008.
- Rambaud, Patrick. Deuxième chronique du règne de Nicolas Ier. Paris: Grasset, 2008.
- Rambaud, Patrick. Three chronicles of the reign of Nicolas Ier. Paris: Grasset, 2009.
- Rambaud, Patrick. Quatrième chronique du règne de Nicolas Ier. Paris: Grasset, 2010.
- Rambaud, Patrick. Cinquième chronique du règne de Nicolas Ier. Paris: Grasset, 2012.
- Rambaud, Patrick. Tomb of Nicolas I and Avènement of François IV. Paris: Grasset, 2013.
- Rambaud, Patrick. François le Petit: Chronique d'un règne. Paris: le Grand livre du mois, 2015.
- Rambaud, Patrick. Chronicle of the End of a KingdomParis: Grasset, 2017
- Rambaud, Patrick. Emmanuel the magnifique: Chronique d'un règne. Paris: Bernard Grasset, 2019.
- Rambaud, Patrick. Les cinq plaies du royaume: Deuxième chronique du règne d'Emmanuel Ier. Paris: Grasset, 2020.
- Reza, Yasmina. L'aube le soir ou la nuit. Paris: Flammarion, 2007.
- Roquin, Charles. KingCherche Midi, 2022.
- Spector, David. 7500 euros: Pastiches politico-littérairesWombat, 2022.
- Tanguy, Marie. ConfusionsParis: JC Lattès, 2020.
This article is written in German and can be found at https://rentree.de. Automatic translations into English and French are available. English, French.
Notes- "Il existe en France une science humane qui mêle l'art oratoire, le théâtre, le ballet et le cinéma. This marmite culturelle a pour nom la politique. Tous les cinq ans, à l'approche de l'élection présidentielle, elle se met à bouillir pour le plus grand bonheur des politologues et des romanciers. Les premiers se font graves et décrivent ; les seconds, plus légers, écrivent.” Jean-Christophe Buisson, “La politique du rire,” Le Figaro, June 4, 2021.>>>
- German Cultural Council, “Upgrading: SPD wants Culture Minister in the Chancellery”, kulturrat.de, August 29, 2021.>>>
- Konstantin Richter, The Chancellor: a fictionKein & Aber Verlag, Zurich 2017.>>>
- David Hugendick, “Trapped in Merkel”, Time and patience, 12. April 2017.>>>
- See, for example, Realities and Fantasies of German Female Leadership: From Maria Antonia of Saxony to Angela MerkelEdited by Elisabeth Krimmer and Patricia Anne Simpson. Women and Gender in German Studies. Camden House, 2019; Maaike Bleeker, “Being Angela Merkel”, in The Rhetoric of Sincerity, edited by Ernst van Alphen, Mieke Bal and Carel Smith, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009, 247–262.>>>
- Eric Zemmour, La France n'a pas dit son dernier motRubempré & Vautrin, 2021.>>>
- Johan Faerber, The grand écrivain, this névrose nationalParis: Pauvert, 2021.>>>
- Johan Faerber, The grand écrivain, this névrose nationalParis: Pauvert, 2021.>>>
- "It's a great homme politique and it's a grand écrivain en même temps, tel est le rêve qui, depuis Napoléon, tient la vie politique et littéraire française en haleine. C'est le fantasy absolu du Vieux siècle que de faire coïncider pouvoir politique et littéraire en seule et même personne, comme si le pouvoir pouvait étre éclairé comme jamais par la puissance de l'écriture. Hugo en rêvait en rêvait en rêvait qui vibrant de this union comme Sacrée et hautement prestigieuse, entre la tête et les jambes pour en somme obtenir le corps suprême: celui du Guide, du Mage.” Christine Marcandier, Entretiens with Johan Faerber: «Le Grand écrivain est la poursuite de la politique par d'autres moyens», Diacriticism, March 10, 2021.>>>
- "L'exigence de transparency, pour tous les citoyens quels qu'ils soient, is one des clefs de voûte de la démocratie. Cela induit que cells et ceux qui par leurs agissements contreviennent à la loi doivent être sanctionnés. Mais cela suppose le respect de règles de droit, de procédure pour que les victims aient la faculté de déposer plainte et les mis en cause, de faire entendre leur point de vue. C'est au juge de les responsibilities des uns et des otheres preuve, the denunciation Unilatérale se substitue au débat contradictoire, écarte la présomption d'innocence, la condamnation sans jugement est unilatérale, publique, même lorsque la justice a tranche. What is the authority of the chosen youth? Nous ne sommes plus dans le cadre d'une procédure qui se doit de respecter les différentes parties, qui repose sur une enquête judiciaire, mais dans une démarche de vengeance, de revanche. Où is the exigence de transparency de la part de ceux et cells qui la réclament? Les justiciers replace les juges. The histoire montre où all cela peut mener.” Jean-Louis Debré in Mathieu Delahousse, “Balance ton porc : La presse n'instruit pas comme un juge d'instruction,” Nouvel Observateur, 15. February 2018.>>>
- "Qui est à l'origine de la rumeur selon laquelle le chef de l'Etat, malgré son âge âge, serait gravement malade et peut-être empêché de se représenter? Le monde politique est en ébullition, où beaucoup ont intérêt à entrittir ce bruit à la veille de la new élection présidentielle.” Publisher announcement Laffont of the book.>>>
- "Comment from the situer les different protagonistes, ballotés between convictions, croyances, positionnements tactics et intérêts à court terme? Décrivant de façon hyperréaliste cet emballement implacable, Pascal Boniface nous entraîne dans un récit captivant où se mêlent situations tragedies, portraits savoureux et rebondissements surprenants.”>>>
- "Un roman certes, mais tellement vrai ! Pascal Boniface, excellent geopolitologue, nous dévoile son talent d'écrivain, avec un premier roman captivant du début jusqu'à la fin. A travers les pages on découvre une analysis fine et tellement pertinente des politiques, journalistes, polemistes, pseudo-experts, universitaires…personne n'est épargné.”>>>
- "Guillaume Roussel, le meneur du Corps d'origine, is a spécialiste du double jeu: all, in the panoplie publique - homme politique de belle probité et bon père de famille catholique -, is fumée et tricherie. Une duplicité qui a bien réussi à cet énarque, ex-Premier ministre et great favori, sous les colors de la Droite populaire, de l'élection présidentielle à venir. Mais, voilà, à un peu plus d'un mois de l'échéance, une mauvaise rumeur surgit: il serait impliqué dans l'assassinat d'un escort-boy marocain delite, The hall is like this, it's a redoutable avocado and it's loud, it's so effective that it's still fidèles. Avouons-le, rien n'est très moral dans this histoire, ce qui la rend d'autant plus réjouissante.” Marianne Payot, “Les livres à ne pas manquer”, The Express, May 22, 2021.>>>
- “« Confusions », the Roman-Témoignage qui raconte the machine Macron de l'intérieur”, Nouvel Observateur, 15. September 2020.>>>
- “Marie Tanguy, former plume of candidate Macron, l'étrille: « On en est restés à des slogans creux »”, Nouvel Observateur, 22. September 2020.>>>
- "Plus encore qu'Emmanuel 1er, c'est l'époque qui l'ennuie, voire le désespère. Il suffit de lire, en fin de volume, sa réplique cinglante à la citoyenne Virginie Despentes, " madone des victims ", qui fut sa voisine à l'Académie Goncourt, dont il Condamne le « on se lève, on se casse, on gueule et on vous emmerde ! », pour mesurer son éloignement progressive et chaplinesque des temps modernes.” Jérôme Garcin, “Macron, Gilets Jaunes, Despentes… Rambaud ne rigole plus”, Le Nouvel Observateur, October 12, 2020.>>>
- Mirja Kuckuk, “As if there were no yesterday”, Süddeutsche Zeitung, May 19, 2010.>>>
- "The book is terrible in the summer, which is now complete with a long list of essays and documents on François Hollande. Without the cause of restitution, Laurent Binet has entered into an entendu et vu pendant this campaign. Car là où l'on voudrait vraiment entrer dans les coulisses d'une campagne présidentielle, là où l'on attendait Laurent Binet pour nous presenter this campagne de façon décalée, the author se voit rattraper par le story telling d'une campaign, tel que l'on peut le retrouver dans all d'où l'impression également d'un livre qui ne "Retient que les petites phrases, les anecdotes, a text that is limited to a compilation of offs and de blagues between politicians and journalists, a text that appears also comme une espèce de défouloir à l'image des nombreux tweets qui ont marqué this campaign." Pierre Jassogne, “Laurent Binet, an embargo” nonfiction.fr, 4. September 2012.>>>
- “En cela, Laurent Binet participe, sans le vouloir, à cette “peopolisation” de la politique, mais surtout à cette new façon de fabriquer et consommer l'information, où l'on retrouve les mêmes phrases partout.” Pierre Jassogne, “Laurent Binet, an embargo” nonfiction.fr, 4. September 2012.>>>
- Besson consul à Los Angeles: Macron récuse tout “copinage”, The Express, 30.8.2018>>>
- See, for example, Grégoire Poussielgue, “Le mandat de Macron par ceux qui l'ont vécu”, Les Echos, November 15, 2021, 11.>>>
- Michael Wurmitzer, “Self-Abolition from Within”, The basic, January 11, 2022, 21.>>>
- "Le chef de l'Etat qui achève son deuxième mandate pourrait bien être Macron, mais il n'est jamais nommé. Si c'est bien lui, le portrait n'est pas flatteur. The apparatus in Machiavel tendance Poutine, qui rêve d'un régime president authentique et qui, en attendant de pouvoir de nouveau se presenter à la magistrature suprême, met ses pions en place pour assurer l'intérim. Le Nouvel Observateur, 4 January 2022.>>>
- Adam Soboczynski, “This is how beautifully the West dies”, Time and patience, January 13, 2022, 49.>>>
- Judith von Sternburg, “The Perfect Time to Die”, Frankfurter Rundschau, January 8, 2022, 28.>>>
- "On attending a roman cagoulard, on se retrouve avec a fan fiction macronolâtre, digne des rêveries diurnes d'un inspector des finances. Bruno Le Maire et Houellebecq se connaissent depuis 2006. Directeur de cabinet de Dominique de Villepin, Le Maire avait aidé Houellebecq pour « une histoire de douane et de chien », lit-on dans « le Monde ». David Caviglioli, “« Anéantir », le roman de Houellebecq, le plus politisé, le plus catholique et… le plus raté”, Le Nouvel Observateur, 4 January 2022.>>>
- "Ce pourrait donc n'être qu'une pochade politique de plus en une période qui promet d'en être riche. Et pourtant, On va bouger ce putain de pays est bien plus que cela. Parisis y déploie toute sa verve, mais aussi une certaine et plaisante forme de tendresse navrée Autour de ses personnages. Il extrait de this matière qui l'universalise, et d'abord, on the dit, litérairement young heroes sont déjà vieux avant que l'exercice du pouvoir ne les amène à l'être. Il ya là-dedans beaucoup de ridicule bien sûr et également, finalement, peut-être un peu de notre humanité commune.” Olivier Mony, “Des young gens trop vieux”, Livres hebdo, January 5, 2022.>>>
- “Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” Winston Churchill, speech to the House of Commons on November 11, 1947, Meeting minutes.>>>
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