Oliver Meiler in The Süddeutsche: ‘“He [Marcon] was, after all, an administrator,” [sociologist Jean] Viard says, already speaking of him in the past tense. A number-cruncher, not a politician. “What drives nations is desire, longing and not administration.” When the French have nothing to dream about, they tend towards pessimism, towards defeatism. Viard has spent years researching this.
“We think of ourselves as a messianic nation,” he says. “Whenever we do something, we always believe that it is first and foremost for the good of all humanity, and only then for our own good.” The French Revolution, for instance, was carried out primarily in the name of human rights, and only secondarily for France. “So we always imagined ourselves to be at the vanguard of everything, producing numerous Nobel laureates, great mathematicians and artists.”’

Disappointment and messianism.

Not an administrator. Another Mozes, leading the French to a higher retirement age.

(a sf 2265)