Undoing France

“THERE can be no security, no freedom, no efficiency without the acceptance of great discipline under the guidance of a strong state and with the enthusiastic support of a people rallied in unity.” Thus Charles de Gaulle, father of the Fifth Republic, identified two elements which have come to define contemporary France: a strong state, embodied by a powerful presidency, and a unified people, living in an indivisible republic. Today, the French tend to regard these two features as emblems of their identity, and a source of the Fifth Republic's political stability. Now, astonishingly, two separate proposals are on the table that would weaken both.