Thought provoking evening last night at the launch of @PEHumaine #PourUneEchelleHumaine (For a Human Scale) in Paris. It’s a collection of essays by a group of 89-generation (so, 30something) activists and politicians. 1/x
The core of their ideas is a three-point approach covering ecology, democratic renewal (this being France, they used the word republicanism) and altruism. They are also very post-party-politics, though you’ll guess from the topics that it’s broadly left/green. 2/
The three point programme I mostly like. It’s self-evident, to me at least, that without some kind of common programme around just transition, democracy and quality public services parties to the left of centre can’t win. 3/
I also liked that there was real practical experience in the room. Politicians and activists who had done things on estates, not just policy position taking. Respect for that. Politics is action on the ground, not rinsing your enemies on Twitter. 4/
Another strong point was their narrative about democratic renewal and citizenship, on which deputy mayor of @nantesfr, @3asseh has a great track record – again, concrete work not theory. 5/
I also liked the (overall) youth and energy of the group. Many of them will be in the next or next but one round of political leaders and they are definitely preparing now for the challenges of 2030/40. 6/
Naturally, I had some things I didn’t agree with. “Altruism” was I thought quite a weak word for the third element of the trio. It has echoes of 19th century liberalism to me, and made me think of Attlee’s description of charity as “a cold loveless thing” 7/
Why not “empathy” or “justice”? I get the aim – an effective state with a strong moral core focused on justice and good public services – and I understand the need to set this up outside a statist or technocratic argument, even in France. But “altruism” is surely just part of it
It was a much more geographically mixed group than a lot of Parisian policy events, but it was still extremely Franco-français. Europe as a geographical entity got a couple of mentions, Europe as a political entity was invisible. 9/
I understand why – and of course my work is in Brussels so I think about the European level more than most – BUT these battles have to be won everywhere or they will be lost everywhere and I would have liked to see an idea for how this spreads beyond France.
There will also be a challenge to make this approach additive not subtractive. At a time of culture wars (Zemmour, a probable far-right presidential candidate) politics is a conversation about splits and differences. Is eco-demo-justice strong enough to unite
Particularly when it comes to the trade offs on climate and public services between different groups? You can see the fault lines – urban/rural, climate/industrial policy – which can be waved away for now, but not for ever.
I also – and this is perhaps the fact that I am very very old – wondered about how their narrative of democratic renewal connected with their clear desire to stay away from party politics. Traditional parties and politicians were dunked on, as usual, but
I don’t know how you avoid engaging with them if you want to get things done, or hold power. A thousand community actions is good, but even a strong associative layer will struggle if it doesn’t have a method of taking elective political power.
Maybe elective politics will go away (I had a very enjoyable debate with @ClaudiaChwalisz about this over dinner after – I suspect she is right that it’s doomed in the medium term, but I don’t want to give up on parties quite yet)
However it’s not going anywhere for bid, and I wondered what this group hoped for. I didn’t know whether it was intended as a ginger group, to put the fear into centre-left pols and get them to be more radical. It certainly wasn’t an offer to the left parties
But more of a bracing challenge. A little bit of it felt quite En Marche-y – innovating a political party out of an intersection of political views that work. As we’ve seen, though, these personalised parties are mayflies and find it hard to implant locally
It would work for a national campaign but if they want a street-by-street remaking of French politics and policy it will only be through local action and local politics.
But these are generally quibbles. The eco-demo-justice trio is a strong start. I would personally have liked to hear more about power (power/agency and climate transition are all of politics in the next ten years, I think).
But I respect and admire the effort of putting this together, and there is a lot here to like. Keep an eye on what happens next with @PEHumaine and I commend it to my Brussels friends in @PES_PSE @GreensEFA.
Particular shout outs for @3asseh @SrhBenbelkacem and @olivia_fortin for their speeches and @GuillaumeMayor for inviting @RaphaelPouye and me, and the follow-up conversation over dinner.
Plus on a personal note it was a huge pleasure to be back at an in-person political event again. That’s the sort of échelle humaine everyone can get behind.
Originally posted as a thread of 22 tweets on Twitter on 2 July 2021. View the original thread.