[eng] Manuel Valls and the assembly of dissidents

Published on May 10, 2014

Who were those so­cial­ist MPs who did not con­form with Manuel Valls on Tues­day, May 29? Who were those ab­stain­ers who seized the op­por­tu­nity to air their op­po­si­tion? Let us seize the op­por­tu­nity too and have a closer look at dis­si­dence around Eu­rope. 

Ma­nuel Valls "takes on" his pol­icy. The "dis­si­dents" does not.

Al­most every other lan­guage of our old world has a word to name those who defy the ideas within their own party, with more or less strength . First, the Ital­ians, who are highly ex­pe­ri­enced in deal­ing with dis­si­dent politi­cians,  also call them "frondisti". Even if they can be eas­ily un­destood, two of Sil­vio Berlus­coni's sup­port­ers let him down when he was still prime Min­is­ter to cre­ate their own party, or to rally oth­ers. A good ex­am­ple can be Gi­an­franco Fini, a dis­si­dent within the Peo­ple of Lib­erty party, he ral­lied the Fu­ture and Lib­erty move­ment (barely alive today), and thus be­tray­ing the Cav­a­liere party, which gladly re­tal­i­ated with in­crim­i­nat­ing press cam­paigns.

 An­ge­lino Al­fano too be­trayed his men­tor by re­fus­ing to be a mem­ber of the new party "Forza Italia" be­fore form­ing a coali­tion with politi­cians on the left . An op­por­tunist? Maybe. « Fron­disti » ? No doubt. 

More pic­turesquely, in Eng­land, they change sides. The dis­si­dents are called "turn­coats" and Prime Min­is­ter David Ca­me­ron saw quite a few changes of sides es­pe­cially in Au­gust 2013 when he wished to take ac­tion in Syria.

While the Spaniards, who are log­i­cal, use the word « contes­ta­ta­rio », the Ger­mans use the word« devia­tio­nist», « Ab­wei­chler ». It is a very good syn­ony­mous for "dis­si­dent" , but tinged with a slight Stal­in­ist con­no­ta­tion, the« devia­tionists » ini­tially being those who op­posed the com­mu­nist regime. When you know what happened to them, we are deeply re­lieved that Manuel Valls's plan has passed, even with a nar­row mar­gin.

Translated from Manuel Valls et l'assemblée des frondeurs