Yesterday, reading Repubblica’s correspondence from Paris on «France in a nervous breakdown», where the possible triumph of Marine Le Pen in the early parliamentary elections is generating panic among the population, we were struck by panic! “The fact that Le Pen could win causes a sense of dizziness and there is a surge in symptoms such as depression, stress, tachycardia and insomnia.” Not to sleep at night.
In the terrorist article in the Italian newspaper – and then they talk about Russian propaganda – the president of the French Federation of Psychologists, and we could do with one too, says that “demo-anxiety” has spread in the country. He said exactly that: “demo-anxiety”. That is, a panic of democracy under threat. Oh there there… And then the water of the Seine will turn into blood, the cities will be invaded by frogs, all the livestock will die and after the hail the plague will come.
Now. There are two things we didn’t understand. The first: how is it possible that France suffers from depression and insomnia because it risks winning the political leader most loved by its citizens? Perhaps it means that to save democracy the people should never be allowed to vote.
And then the second: but if France falls into Le Pen’s fascism, where will the Italian intellectuals fleeing from Meloni’s fascism now go into exile? Or will the French intellectuals fleeing Le Pen’s fascism come into exile in Meloni’s Italy?
Uhmmmmm Maybe they will all go into exile in Orbán’s Hungary. That life costs even less there.