World News: The Danaids and the Equation
- Details
- Category: Haute This Issue
- Published on Monday, 02 November 2026 14:01
- Written by Olivier Longhi
As France prepares to elects a new President of the Republic, the societal ills and the states obligation to its citizens but have become a complex equation in which voluntarism and assumed pragmatism will have to be mixed.
A few months before the presidential election, the candidates need to develop programmes that provide concrete answers to the daily difficulties in committing the State's finances beyond their limits, at the risk of amplifying social discontent.
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At the risk of amplifying social discontent. Ex-French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin would be the one who, to date, could give with certainty the name of the future president of the Republic. Although predicted to win in the polls, Marine Le Pen remains in competition with other candidates, such as Jean-Luc Mélenchon or Edouard Philippe.
However, a few months before the election, and regardless of the candidates, it remains to be determined from what angle and on what themes to campaign to seduce a maximum of voters for an election that will be scrutinized throughout Europe, or even beyond?
And for good reason, France remains with Germany a pillar of the European Union, also wearing the mantle of the second largest economy of the Union.
If the subject of debt occupies a large part of the candidates' speeches, thereby questioning the future of the Welfare State and its foundations, the question of purchasing power and education could be invited into the debate, the first referring to a daily life that has become too heavy to manage for many French people, the second to the future of the generations who will be in charge of the State in ten to fifteen years' time.
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Responses and Room to Maneuver
Thus, if the question of purchasing power arises, with the underlying issue of public debt, which still somewhat escapes many of us because of its complexity and structure, the need to propose a set of responses, if not fast, at least effective in its effects to alleviate the difficulties encountered on a day-to-day basis, emerges.
The only black spot, and this is a major one, is that the State's finances no longer allow for excess, with budgetary room for manoeuvre reduced to nothing. For the candidates in the running, it is therefore a question of promising a lot, without falling into demagoguery, without spending more, or even less, to avoid weighing down an already serious financial situation.
The State, regularly called upon to propose solutions to multiple crises, has thus reached its financial limits. If promising the impossible is tempting and intoxicating for those who devote themselves to it and believe in it, this same impossible turns out to be tautological, since it is impossible in itself. This is a major challenge for the candidates: to get elected by offering more and better than the current tenant of the Elysée Palace without further weakening the State's finances and at the same time its image while maintaining a high level of credibility within the electorate.
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Events
This Tonneau des Danaïdes, which makes the candidates in the running dream, nevertheless has all the aspects of a time bomb of which the demonstrations currently sweeping the major cities of France are only the preamble, for the moment generally controlled, not without difficulty, of a social unrest that is bound to intensify if the situation were to deteriorate even further.
Taking over the reins of the country in the coming months is certainly a matter of personal ambition (because it is nevertheless necessary) but also of a bet that some would describe as audacious, not to say risky.
And, ultimately, to answer the question, from what angle and on what themes to campaign, the answer that is necessary would be composed of a dose of voluntarism and above all an assumed pragmatism, understand perhaps radical, at the risk of provoking the ire of an already tired population.
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Bio: Olivier Longhi has extensive experience in European history. A seasoned journalist with fifteen years of experience, he is currently a professor of history and geography in the Toulouse region of France. He has held a variety of publishing positions, including Head of Agency and Chief of Publishing. A journalist and recognized blogger, editor, and editorial project manager, he has trained and managed editorial teams, worked as a journalist for various local radio stations, was a press and publishing consultant, and was a communications consultant.
