My friend Guillaume recently hit on a perfect analogy for French politics: in a scene from Succession, Logan Roy’s children ask him why he is putting them through so much misery, and why he won’t just turn his company over to them. To which the surly CEO says: “I love you, but you are not serious people.”
The beauty of the Fifth Republic’s institutions is how flexible they are. When there is a clear majority, the system is presidential. When there’s not, it’s parliamentary. Except, a parliament with no clear majority requires serious people willing to do the difficult work of forming a coalition that is able to govern. And unfortunately, France’s collection of leftwing parties were unable to be serious about what governing entails.
