Last week, there were two pieces of news destined to have an effect on European politics. The first was that Jacques Fillon won the political primaries of the centre-right in France. The second, a direct result of this election was François Hollande stating that he does not intend to contest the next Presidential election. He becomes the first French President not to contest a second term.

I am privileged to have studied at a University in France that has created and made Fillon. I am here referring to the Sorbonne University or Paris IV.

In fact, when I argued, in my previous blogs, about the need for the Nationalist Party to return to basics, and rediscover its soul in its motto Religio et Patria, I was ridiculed and passed for an imbecile. There were even those who questioned my academic credentials. This motto is now returning, clad in a modern guise by Fillon and the new centre-right. As has happened in America, the centre-right is winning also in France.

What I am stating here has nothing to do with like or dislike. It is something else. No centre-right party can continue to exist without core values. This process started at the Sorbonne in reaction to what in Academic circles is known as the Frankfurt School. The Frankfurt school pushed an anti-Christian agenda. It was formed in 1923 with the specific aim of destroying Christianity in Europe and assuring the supremacy of science. These arguments were recently paraded with great vehemence in the local press. The European Union swallowed the bait and is now realizing that it has well-nigh destroyed itself. The reason is very simple. Europe is a Christian construct.

But the challenge to the Frankfurt School of thought came from an unexpected quarter. It came from the history branch of the Humanities.  Very few realized that the counter reaction in France was triggered at the Sorbonne – Paris IV by three professors, now all dead. Unlike the Frankfurt School, which was dominated by philosophers, the French School was characterized by historians. The first one was Roland Mousnier. The centre where I studied demography in Paris was named after him. There was Pierre Chaunu who taught Early Modern History. It is extremely interesting that Chaunu was a Calvinist Pastor. He was a first-class student of Ferdinand Braudel and later succeeded Braudel in France. Then there was André Corvisier, who taught Military history.

These three started to be called the Three Musketeers at the Sorbonne. Corvisier was a traditional Catholic. In fact he always stated that he wanted to die a Catholic and for this reason he heard Mass regularly at the Church of Cardinal Lefebvre in Paris. Incidentally, these fundamental Catholics were the first strong and unwavering supporters of the Front Nationale in Paris.

Eventually, Yves Durand arrived at Paris IV and he challenged the French narrative of the demeaning the period prior to the French Revolution. In truth, the French Revolution destroyed France. From the Middle Ages until 1789, France was the European country par excellence. After the Revolution, Germany became the point of reference in Europe. France fabricated a story of Napoleon’s greatness. Today, this is being revised in history.

Despite all the squares in France named after Napoleon’s victories, Napoleon lost his last and most important battle to Russia, Prussia and Great Britain. Today, these three European nations are dominating the international scene. France is out of this equation.

These three eminent professors of the French School vowed to restore France to greatness and this had to start by revisiting her history, in particular that of the ancien regime. This also left an effect on other aspects of the French historical narrative, including the way French historians viewed their medieval past.  

Now, we have the arrival of a politician who directly or indirectly is the result of this school. The French centre-right ignored the plea of these Catholics and eventually other Christians. Hence, they fell under the spell of Mitterrand and his concept of Europe. Perhaps, French Christian politicians felt reassured by François Mitterrand’s counterpart Helmut Kohl who came from the German Christian Democratic Party. While politicians were all lost in their bubble, the Paris IV professors did their utmost to completely destroy such a political spell that was destroying France. What was initiated in the late 1990s, is now giving fruit.

Thanks to Fillon, family politics is returning to the centre of the political agenda in France. But was not this what French historians, such as Flandrin and Aries, were writing about back in the seventies and eighties? Back then, France was concerned with AIDS and how this was ravishing its homosexual community and the “PAC” (pacte civil de solidarité), which led to gay civil marriage. One of the politicians who opposed this legislation of civil marriage for people of the same sex was Jacques Fillon.

The figure of Jacques Fillon is not well known in Malta. Fillon has had a chequered political career in France. The first time that I heard his name was back in the 1990s when I arrived in Paris. In fact that same year, the general elections were won by the right. Chirac refused to become Prime Minister. Instead, his friend Balladur was asked to become Prime Minister, as Chirac wanted to focus on the Presidential elections.

Fillon was given the portfolio of higher education. My supervisor, Jean Pierre Bardet ended up Director General at the Ministry and some of my colleagues ended up working in French ministries in positions of trust. One needs to remember that French Universities are divided on political lines and the Sorbonne supports the Gaullist parties. Paris Sorbonne Pantheon is the one that supports the left in France.

When the presidential elections were announced, Balladur decided to contest them. I still remember that his government was deemed extremely effective and good. Yet, within the Gaullist Party, this was considered a betrayal for Chirac. In this inner fight, Fillon supported Balladur. Nonetheless, Chirac still won the presidential elections.

A new government was formed. Alan Juppé became the Prime Minister. He was the only minister from the previous administration, who supported Balladur, to have been kept a ministry. But this time round, instead of being responsible for higher education, he was made minister of Telecommunications and the Post Office. In France, such a ministry is considered as a nominal one, without any great relevance in the political system. But he still succeeded in continuing to advance under Sarkozy who made him Prime Minister.

Perhaps one could say that Fillon is going to represent the Catholic voter. Besides being a practising Catholic, he has no problem to admit this in a country where, from the Third Republic onwards, it is out of fashion to declare your Catholic faith.

Being a Catholic and opposing gay marriages is not the problem. The issue here is that gender politics was originally a Marxist position. It was practised in Easter Europe and did not work. In order to have it working, it was represented as a liberal and progressive front by the left and the Liberals.

This time round, there is a politician in France who admits that he stands for traditional values where family politics are concerned but then Fillon is more liberal than the Socialists as far as economic policy and freedom of expression goes.

He has said it clearly that the French Civil Service is too vast in terms of personnel and he wants to cut back. This is an extremely courageous stand in France since the State, from the Revolution onwards, is always omnipresent. Fillon wants to reduce personnel so as to make France competitive again. He knows from history that France needs to revisit her past as her European greatest does not lie in the Revolution and what happened afterwards, but in what happened before this same Revolution.

Fillon has won the French primaries, gave a knockout to Hollande and should be the one winning the French presidential elections.