The President, the Mayor and the carnival

After a final change of maneuver, at the end of an impressive series of taking a new line and then another line, the President of the Republic finally opted, around the 20th March, for a postponement of the second round of the municipal elections. Today, France finds itself in a legal and political imbroglio, consequence of the initial contradiction^[1]cf : BdF, France: Navigation By Sight In Thick Fog, 17th March. [Consulted on 23rd March 2020]. Available at: https://contrib.city/wp-admin/post.php?post=2390&action=edit&classic-editor. The opinions given by the Conseil d’Etat (State Council) vis-à-vis a government bill clearly show that the organization of this second round turns out to be a real headache for legal professionals and more again for those of Politics.

What the Conseil d’Etat (State Council) overlooks a bit is the fact that the first round elections were held in an insincere context, the government having previously encouraged the French to stay at home. This government recommendation, added to the fear – justified by the facts – of the Corona virus, pushed more than half of the French voters registered not to go to vote^[2]PUBLIC SENAT, Municipales 2020 : 54,5% d’abstention estimée au premier tour, des taux massifs dans les grandes villes françaises (Municipal 2020: an estimated 54.5% rate in the first round, massive rates in major French cities), 15th March 2020. [Consulted on the 23rd March 2020]. Available at: https://www.publicsenat.fr/article/politique/municipales-2020-545-d-abstention-estimee-au-premier-tour-des-taux-massifs-dans. In these conditions, how can one affirm that this ballot happened in a truly democratic framework? Unless the important thing is not really the power of the people, but rather to act “as if”.

After all why not? Why would only Venice, Rio de Janeiro or even Dunkirk^[3]This parade dates back to the 17th century. It was organized by fishermen and shipowners. Sources: LILLE eVOUS, Carnival of Dunkirk 2020 – program of bands and balls, 11th March 2020, [Consulted on 24th March 2020]. Avaialble at: https://www.evous.fr/Carnaval-de-Dunkerque-2020-parcours-et-programme,1189997.html; read too: CITIZENKID, Carnivals in the North 2020 (Carnavals dans le Nord 2020), [Consulted 24th march 2020]. Available at: https://www.citizenkid.com/festival/le-carnaval-dans-le-nord-une-sortie-a-faire-en-famille-a1038372 have masquerades? The other French cities could also have their own. Even during elections? In any case, let’s hope that the shortage of masks (but medical this time) fades quickly so that the nursing staff can do their work in the least bad conditions possible.

The main thing is not to be fooled and to try to understand the cogs of our world, even if they are strongly… seized! And one of the gears that has practically stopped is that of industrial and tertiary production, apart from a few segments, such as the telecommunications and videoconferencing sectors. Each passing day costs its share both human (with worrying prospects of layoffs), fiscal (all of the States of the Planet are going into debt even more heavily) and finally financial (the French stock Exchange, CAC 40, has lost a third of its value between February 24th and the march 24th). The French State, which already had to face a constantly increasing debt which officially equals to the French GDP [7] when it had come out of an almost continuous growth of several years, must at all costs help the country to tilt as quickly as possible on the other side of the expansion curve of the Corona epidemic so that households can resume their activities and restart the machine as strongly as possible.

CC hears that this crisis calls into question a whole system of production and over-consumption. Why not… Perhaps, indeed, we could target our productive apparatus more towards a more qualitative than quantitative: produce less but better. This would be tantamount to creating fewer products (physical goods and services) but with higher added value, in particular in social and environmental terms, and therefore more expensive. Once again, why not … But Contrib’City doesn’t agree with those who think that this health crisis, which for the moment has claimed far fewer victims than H1N1 in 2014^[4]more than 18,000 deaths in France in 2014, would encourage to consume less and therefore to produce less, in keeping with deep ecology. Because, in these conditions, we would end up either with leaders certainly charismatic but practicing little their own speeches like Nicolas Hulot, Minister of the Environment but owning nine thermal engine vehicles^[5]cf : CHALLENGES, Nicolas Hulot explains his 9 [thermal] motor vehicles (Nicolas Hulot s’explique sur ses 9 véhicules à moteur), le 17/12/2017, [Consulted 23rd March 2020]. Avaialble at: https://www.challenges.fr/politique/nicolas-hulot-s-explique-sur-ses-9-vehicules-a-moteur_520716 . CC wishes to specify that the production of a vehicle with thermal engine, even if little used thereafter, contributes to emitting a lot of greenhouse gases and consumes large quantities of water., either with chefs little aware of economic logic and leading the vast majority of the population towards a period of recession.

To choose between a stimulus policy (by supply or demand, no matter when it works) or that of a change in philosophical paradigm (let’s not seek happiness only in economic growth), Contrib ‘ City takes no stand, true to its spirit of freedom. But, to use an expression from the town planner and historian Michel Carmona who participated, several years ago, in this type of debate in the Sorbonne, CC asks this question: Who pays?