Could Family Possibly Be of Any Use?

Macron doesn't know what family is. He is childless and married to the older woman who groomed him whilst he was a schoolboy.

From The European Conservative

By Hélène De Lauzun

Let's rejoice: families can be useful—the government is finally saying so.

The riots that have shaken France over the past week have given President Emmanuel Macron the opportunity to make some particularly unexpected remarks, which are fairly revealing of the mental confusion that reigns at the highest levels of government today. Faced with the discovery of hordes of young people ransacking the country, the President had an epiphany: if these rascals—most of them minors—had been properly educated by their parents, would we be where we are today? Emmanuel Macron is rediscovering the importance of the family—better late than never.

During his public speeches at the time of the riots, in a paradox that only politics knows the secret of, Macron was transformed in a moment into a champion of the family and parental authority. On the Friday following the accident, the French president appealed “to the sense of responsibility of fathers and mothers” to “keep young people in their homes.” What an irony, when we remember that Emmanuel Macron, despite all the trouble he takes to portray a ‘normal’ couple alongside Brigitte Macron, does not himself know what it means to be a father and educate a child.

Macron doesn’t have a family, and he’s in no position to talk about it either, because he’s been hell-bent on destroying it ever since he took office. Didn’t he say without batting an eyelid in 2020 to Pascale Morinière, President of the Catholic Family Associations: “Your problem is that you believe that the father is necessarily a male,” believing that the “symbolic” function of the father could be assumed by anyone? The French health minister at the time, Agnès Buzyn, felt that a father “could very well be a grandmother.” The result is clear to see. Unfortunately, it’s not a coincidence that the young Nahel who died at the wheel of his Mercedes A-Class grew up without a father, alone with a disoriented mother who was clearly unable to instil in him some of the reference points essential to life in society.

But that’s not all: in the midst of the fire and destruction, Macron rediscovered another universal truth that had clearly escaped him: children belong first and foremost to their parents, not to the State. “It is important for everyone’s peace of mind that parental responsibility can be fully exercised. It is not the role of the Republic to take the place of fathers and mothers,” he declared in his speech. These are fortunate words from a man who, in the field of education, has not ceased, since he came to power, to remove children from parental authority and to trample on the universal reality that parents are the first educators of their children, by introducing compulsory schooling from the age of three, or by banning homeschooling.

Minister of Justice Éric Dupont-Moretti followed up his president’s comments with the same kind of rhetoric. During the riots, he criticised “parents who take no interest in their children and leave them hanging around at night, knowing where they’re going,” pointing out that they incur “criminal liability.” Since Nahel’s death, the government has been hard at work on the measures it hopes to propose by the end of 2023, designed to help failing parents. Some avenues are being explored, such as “compulsory parenting courses” in the event of intra-family difficulties, or “levers” to encourage “separated fathers” to reinvest in their child. In any case, the balancing act between empowering parents and the state’s control over education is likely to be a perilous one. But let’s rejoice: families can be useful—the government is finally saying so.

This is also an opportunity for the resurfacing of an old sea serpent in French politics: the suspension of welfare payments to parents of juvenile delinquents. This measure appeared in French law in the past but was later withdrawn. A law bearing the name of LR MP Éric Ciotti provided for the withdrawal of family allowances for parents of delinquent children, but it was abolished under the presidency of Socialist François Hollande. Given the current unrest, the Rassemblement National, Les Républicains, and Reconquête are calling for this provision to be reinstated.

Without going so far as to abolish family allowances, the idea of a financial penalty for parents has even resurfaced in the President’s mind, in flowery terms: “We should be able to penalise families financially and easily for the first offence. A sort of minimum fee for the first connerie [expletive],” explained Emmanuel Macron. The indefatigable Pap Ndiaye, Minister for Non-Education, is not in favour of abolishing allowances either, but may consider the relevance of a financial penalty. Once again, we run the risk of remaining at the stage of good intentions with no effect.

The riots in June revealed a number of ills that France, like other Western countries, has been suffering from for decades. Much has been said about immigration and its obvious impact on delinquency, but we must not forget either the role played by the failure of the education system, mentioned by Éric Zemmour in a recent interview with the Spanish press, or the breakdown of the family structure as a formidable factor in accelerating violence.

In 2017, the Catholic Family Associations published an in-depth study on the consequences and cost to the social order of the destruction of the traditional family—particularly as a result of divorce. Things have only been confirmed, reinforced, and worsened since then. As Pascale Morinière reminded us at the time of the riots, family stability is undoubtedly the best guarantee of social order.

Pascale Morinière

@pascalemorinie1

On pourra mettre en place toutes les politiques palliatives possibles, la meilleure des politiques est la prévention des ruptures conjugales. Quand les familles sont fragilisées, la société va mal mais quand les familles vont bien, toute la société va mieux.