Bringing together a fractured France

Bringing together a fractured France is the theme of this session. Words always have a precise meaning. To reunite (Larousse Dictionary): to bring together what was separated. Reunification cannot be a goal in itself. War (military or political) against the “external enemy” can reunite a people for the wrong reasons. The principle must therefore not be reunification as such, but reunification around great values and for the defence of an economic, social and ecological model. However, there must be agreement on the meaning of these terms. In a period of radical transformation of societies, both politically and technologically, it is necessary to redefine what consensus can be reached on the fundamental rules of “living together”. As the example of pension reform shows, this can give rise to confrontations and inflections. The question remains the same: what arbitration between generations are we prepared to make for the next two decades?

Fractured France: Fracture (Dictionary Larousse): rupture with effort. Two remarks. First, the fracturing of economies is not unique to France. Under the double blow of accelerated globalization and the digital revolution, this fracture concerns all countries, in the South as well as in the North.
Secondly, this divide takes extremely diverse forms which, in many cases, can reinforce each other. To put it simply, this divide has at least three dimensions: economic (the “small” and the “big”), territorial (the centre and the periphery) and social (the “haves” and the “have-nots”).

The ambition of this round table is to provide (as quickly as possible) a diagnosis of the current situation but also, and above all, of the ways and means, not theoretical but practical, of reducing these different types of divide.