Contenu du sommaire : La République en suspens

Active assistance in dying at the end of life is not so much a matter of individual freedom of choice or respect for human dignity as a step towards greater social justice: it would ensure equal treatment and solidarity with the most vulnerable.

The balance in the Parliament is shifting to the right, but the elections enabled the previous coalition to be maintained and Ursula von der Leyen to be re-elected. The Union will need to strengthen its economic competitiveness and agree on its geopolitical strategy.

From its independence in 1990 to the Russian attack on Crimea in 2014, Ukraine pursued a peaceful policy of disarmament. Since then, President Zelensky has been looking for weapons and another geopolitical location for his country.

The Israeli army's violence against civilians in Gaza, committed with the complicit passivity of Western democracies, is normalizing the way autocrats, led by Putin, wage war.

The American presidential election pits Kamala Harris, who suffers from the ideological vagueness and elitist image of the Democratic Party, against Donald Trump, who continues the populist turn of the Republican Party. It promises to be another test for American institutions.

Did the civic upsurge that followed the dissolution of the National Assembly merely buy us time against the far right? Or do the political and intellectual mobilizations of June serve as a reminder that the country's political trajectory can be altered?

The dissolution of the National Assembly led to the reconstitution of a republican front against the Rassemblement National. But the legislative elections did not resolve the deep rifts in French society.

In a society riddled with anxiety, the unconditional nature of fundamental social and political rights is no longer self-evident. To undo this unequal promise, the left needs to invent new public solidarities and reiterate emancipation through rights.

The Internet and social networks have accentuated pre-existing tendencies towards rhetorical brutality, particularly in extreme right-wing circles. But the idea of the democratic public sphere as a regulator has not been liquidated, as witnessed by the intellectual counter-offensive during the legislative elections.

In a largely peri-urban society, the far right has seized on nostalgia for the village of yesteryear, adding this subtext: in this village, we were “at home”.

Young people, who used to “piss off” the Front National, now vote 25% for the extreme right. This is mainly due to the weakness of young people's commitments and their lack of political support. The political and intellectual worlds therefore need to provide better support for young people.

Writer Patrick Autréaux examines how his literary work has matured within him, understanding that time is a landscape for him, and that he seeks, like a lost friend, to give back their lights to all the hinterlands.

The works of Philippe Jaccottet and Gary Snyder bear witness to an openness to the flourishing of nature, which is a poetic foundation of ecology.

Over the past year, cinema has been drawing a pessimistic picture of schools: teachers are no longer secular saints, but martyrs. But they can still be portrayed as civilizers, committed and competent.

Claude Esteban's writings on art (L'Atelier contemporain, 2024) bring painting and poetry into dialogue to unravel the secrets of the visible, especially when it comes to the portraits of Giacometti, Bacon or Rembrandt.

In Chant pour Europe (Artaud, 2024), mixing real and imaginary journeys, Paolo Rumiz dips his pen in the inkwell of Mediterranean nights. His verses are written to the rhythm of waves, winds and voices, recalling a tradition of hospitality.