The question, a provocative nothing, deserves (and why not?) To be asked. Distrust of political staff, disputed legitimacy of the President of the Republic, parliamentary paralysis, vitrification of “Values of the Republic” : Why not turn the page on a sclerotic republican regime to establish a constitutional monarchy? In an exciting essay, What if the next president was a king?the writer Paul Melun, a fervent defender of the Republic, traded by pleadyers interposed with journalist Philippe Viguié Desplaces, subversive supporter of a restoration of the constitutional monarchy in France.
But you still have to agree on a definition of the constitutional monarchy. Is it only possible to have a French people accept that nepoticism is reached for the return of privileges and a hereditary line at the top of the state? “The advent of a monarchy in France in the 3rd millennium is not the return to an old regime, to privileges and to the state religion. The constitutional monarchy is the opposite ”replies Viguié Desplaces.
Another significant advantage: a royal dynasty ensures the stability and unity of the country. “Since 1813, while Napoleon I is still alive and Louis XVIII, the brother of Louis XVI, on the throne of France, Sweden had only 7 kings, Luxembourg, 9 sovereigns, Denmark, 6, and Belgium, 7 … In France, since 1851, we will have had 25 presidents of the Republic, from Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte to Emmanuel Macron”observes the journalist, specialist in crowned heads.
In Spain, King Felipe managed to relegate Catalan separatists to the margin after the 2017 crisis; In Belgium, the monarchy is the only cement which manages to make two nations cohabit which share the same language or the same religion; In France, should we not be the establishment of French as a common language to the Villers-Cotterêts order, enacted by François I in 1539?
Reconnect with the essence of the fifth republic
Yes, but here it is: is it very reasonable to change the regime at a time when France wonders about its national identity-to paraphrase a Prime Minister in office? The British example shows that the constitutional monarchy is in no way an antidote to the poison of religious separatism, as Paul Melun rightly recalls: “By tolerating community practices, even religious courts as in the case of certain Islamic jurisdictions, the United Kingdom fragments its social body. Each community tends to fall back on itself, creating parallel societies with laws and customs different from those of the country. (…) The French Republic, by imposing secularism, was able to avoid this trap. By placing all citizens on an equal footing before the law, it strengthens national unity and preserves a common space where everyone is free to believe, but where no one has the right to impose their beliefs on others. »»
How to respond to the political crisis that France is going through? “The only way out is to reconnect with the very essence of the fifth republic as it was imagined by Debré and de Gaulle. The 1958 Constitution is the perfect synthesis between Bonapartist passions, the heritage of ancient regime and the aspiration for freedom, democracy and equality of all citizens ”replies the essayist.
In August 1830, Victor Hugo, ultra-rider in his youth under the influence of his own mother, was tempted by the coming to power of Louis-Philippe d’Orléans in favor of the July Revolution. He writes in his Newspaper :: “After July 1830, we need the Republic and the word monarchy”. Is the reverse possible in 2025?
What if the next president was a king?Paul Melun, Philippe Viguié Desplaces, Mareuil editions, 205 pages, 20 euros.
