The president
| Comic | |
|---|---|
| title | The president |
| Original title | La Présidente |
| author | François Durpaire |
| Illustrator | Farid Boudjellal |
| publishing company | Les Arènes |
| First publication | 2015-2017 |
| expenditure | 3 |
The President ( French: La Présidente ) is a French comic by the French historian François Durpaire , drawn by Farid Boudjellal . The series is about the fate of France after a fictional victory by right-wing extremist politician Marine Le Pen in the 2017 presidential election .
content
The runoff election for French President 2017 is just won by Marine Le Pen from the Front National . Large sections of the public are shocked, especially politicians from other parties, commentators in the media and representatives from business. Nevertheless, the Front National quickly succeeded in winning over the right wing of the Republicans and parts of the business elite. The cabinet of Marine Le Pen consists not only of FN politicians, but also representatives of other right-wing parties, above all the Republicans. They also won the following parliamentary elections, in which both the FN and the Republicans each won a third of the seats. Equipped with this power, the President goes to the implementation of her party program: The official actions against foreigners and immigrant French are tightened, freedom of travel restricted, acquisition of citizenship or a residence permit made more difficult and the deportation massively increased, the media put under pressure and a referendum on Withdrawal from the euro area . In addition, the powers and equipment of the secret services and police will be expanded considerably and additional data on political opponents will be collected. Right-wing extremist currents are encouraged by the political successes of the FN and hostility and violence are more frequent.
Many of the government's measures are protested, but they cannot be dissuaded and pressurize political opponents with information gathered about them or arrest politicians and artists on charges of supporting terrorism. After the referendum, France leaves the euro area and the Constitutional Council, which monitors compliance with the constitution, is abolished. The exit from the euro leads to an immediate decline in the value of the franc and French companies. In terms of foreign policy, Marine LePen is trying to establish closer relations with Southeast Asia and Russia. The attempt to come to an understanding with former EU partners and the United States under President Hillary Clinton ends with the FN's announced withdrawal from NATO . The preference for the population of European descent in the overseas territories leads to conflicts and ultimately uprisings there, which are to be suppressed with the army. While the economic crisis, unemployment and protests intensified at the turn of the year from 2017 to 2018, the President of the National Assembly was kidnapped by a right-wing radical group. This accuses Marie Le Pen, who is too moderate, of treason and demands the transfer of power. Otherwise, they threaten a coup. The government blames Islamists for the kidnapping and declares a state of emergency.
In addition to the description of the political events, the story accompanies a small family consisting of Antoinette Giraud, who still fought in the Resistance , her grandsons Stéphane and Tariq, and Fati, who comes from Senegal. While Antoinette is getting more and more angry about the events and Fati, who grew up in Paris, fears that he will be deported to a foreign country, Stéphane tries to fight against the political shift to the right in a blog. He and Fati become a couple, but then she too is deported. Antoinette dies because of the excitement about the deportation. Tariq and Stéphane want to continue the resistance, but are ultimately arrested themselves.
Creation and publication
The historian François Durpaire feared after the victory of the Front National in the European elections in 2014 , in which the party was the strongest force, that a few years later a candidate from the extreme right might actually win the presidential election. Instead , Durpaire saw the fact that the novel Submission , which is about the victory of a Muslim candidate, had great success and sparked discussions in 2015 as a denial of reality against the rise of the political right. Therefore, he worked intensively on the program of the Front National and designed a scenario for the first months after a victory by Marine Le Pen. He chose the form of a graphic novel , as he could thus “reach a wide audience” and “pictures think stimulate ". To do this, he teamed up with the draftsman Farid Boudjellal . He often used photographs as a template for his black and white drawings, especially when depicting well-known politicians and personalities. For his scenario, Durpaire assumes that the republican right is divided and, with its several candidates, is defeated by the right-wing extremist candidates in the first ballot, and that François Hollande , who is running again, fails to unite a republican front in the second ballot. For the development that followed after the National Front took power, Durpaire took the party's program as a basis and consulted experts on individual areas, such as Emmanuel Lechypre for economics and Wallès Kotra for overseas territories. Durpaire paid particular attention to the expansion of the surveillance state, which was already well advanced in democratic France. In his foreword to the German edition, Ulrich Wickert draws parallels to other right-wing movements in Europe, whose programs gave rise to fears similar to those outlined in the book for France, including the FPÖ in Austria and the AfD in Germany.
The first volume was published in November 2015 by Les Arènes in France. Two more volumes followed with the title Totalitaire and La Vague in October 2016 and March 2017. A German translation of the first volume was published in 2016 by Jacoby & Stuart . In addition to the foreword by the author, it contains a second foreword by Ulrich Wickert . Some political updates have been incorporated into the translation, such as the successful Brexit vote. Excerpts from the comic appeared as part of a guest contribution from François Durpaire in the time leading up to the French presidential election 2017th
At the Theater Magdeburg , a stage adaptation of the comic was performed in the summer 2018th It was directed by Cornelia Crombholz and Corinna Harfouch played the leading role .
reception
In France, the first volume of the comic sold over 100,000 copies in the first three months of its publication.
According to Andreas Platthaus, it alone shows that Marine Le Pen was expected to make it into the runoff election, how close Durpaires scenario is to reality. The fact that only well-known politicians act in the political part of the story makes it possible to compare their behavior around the actual presidential election with the prophecy. And the shown death and the state funeral for Jean-Marie Le Pen showed a clear reference to the beginning of the Nazi era , when Hindenburg's death was the occasion of a state act. The side story about the resistance fighters, on the other hand, is clichéd, but acceptable in the sense of enlightenment and to show heroes. The drawings "simulate documentary reports and are good thanks to their aesthetics, which are primarily oriented towards portraits," but they are not on a par with the texts and could be disappointing. The story lives “from its material, not from its form”.
The Tagesspiegel judges that the President is very text-heavy due to the content and not always easily accessible for German readers who are not familiar with French politics. Nevertheless, a sufficient flow of narrative arises and for those interested, the story offers a lot of information about the politics of France and especially the Front National. With the former resistance fighter, there is a direct link between the fight against the right-wing extremist government and the resistance against the German occupation. The fact that one of her grandchildren is the son of an Algerian and the friend of the other Senegalese also brings in the French colonial history, but it is too much and seems intentional. Also, the voters of the Front National and their motivation do not appear at all. And history shows with the form of resistance "a tragedy of the current post-politics apparently: A youth who lives apolitically and hedonistically chooses individualistic strategies even in the crisis of democracy, because they remain suspicious of mass organizations." The tightly organized Front National is superior to the chaotic opposition. For example, "the story bumps many times, the protagonists sometimes seem wooden and their facial expressions are puzzles". Nevertheless, the comic is important as a warning and is worth reading, "because it tells a lot of perspectives and is not instructive". For Frank Meyer at Deutschlandfunk , too, the scenes with the resistance group are among the less successful elements of the graphic novel. In contrast, the projection of the FN program into the future is interesting. In addition, it is positively emphasized how the ingratiation of celebrities to the new power is portrayed with sharp mockery.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b The President . Foreword by François Durpaire.
- ^ A b c Frank Meyer: Marine Le Pen as comic president. In: Deutschlandfunk. September 3, 2016, accessed September 20, 2018 .
- ↑ The President. Foreword to the German edition by Ulrich Wickert.
- ^ A b Andreas Platthaus: Madame la Présidente Le Pen. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine. September 19, 2016, accessed September 20, 2018 .
- ↑ François Durpaire: The first French president. In: Zeit Online. April 23, 2017. Retrieved September 20, 2018 .
- ^ Corinna Harfouch plays "The President" in Magdeburg. Die Welt, March 15, 2018, accessed September 18, 2018 .
- ↑ Thomas Greven: When Marine Le Pen won the election. In: Der Tagesspiegel. September 18, 2016, accessed September 20, 2018 .