The author argues against the gravediggers of the free world in a speculative tale on the exercise of power and its illusions, a dazzling sequel to the best-seller “Tsunami.”
Pubished
Reading time: 8min
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Following the success of Tsunami, in which he portrayed a president facing popular anger, climate challenges, and the growing influence of GAFAM, Marc Dugain had not returned to the arena of French political fiction, a genre in which he excels. It is highly likely that the recent spectacle of the disintegration of our institutions combined with the acceleration of international crises has finally convinced him to step out with his new novel Submersion, published on April 2 by Albin Michel. For Franceinfo Culture, he sheds light on the threats looming over our democracy in a candid and highly stimulating exchange.
Franceinfo Culture: With Submersion, you dive back into the ruthless world of power games at the highest level of the State. What was the trigger for you to create a sequel to Tsunami?
Marc Dugain: It is a sequel in the sense that I return to the same character as in Tsunami, but it is an independent book from Tsunami. It is a unique literary genre because we are not in the past, but in a fictional future based on reality, and it is quite complicated to write because I do it without hindsight. My motivation remains to highlight the underlying trends of evolution in our civilization, to show the world as it is unfolding, and to discern the major challenges amidst the media and digital fog. Indeed, if there is a constant in my work, it is the theme of power because humans are creatures of power and this material is truly novelistic.
You create a complex character of a head of State who seeks to restore the frayed link with citizens. What is the original sin of the current disillusionment towards politicians?
Politicians have short-sightedness. We, as voters, probably do too, but we vote for them so they elevate the debate and prepare us for major challenges. Instead, they manage their clan, their career. Their ego takes precedence over collective ambition, and we can see that elected officials are increasingly lacking in competence while society, with the advent of the digital age, becomes more complex. Due to incompetence and lack of sincerity, they have severed the connection with voters to the point of discrediting democracy.
In the book, you often reference prominent historical figures: Charles de Gaulle, Jaurès, Mendès-France. Is there no one today capable of meeting the current challenge?
This is an essential question. The Fifth Republic requires a strong, exemplary personality capable of greatness, above party lines and capable of maintaining a strong, enduring connection with the people. I do not see anyone today at the level of this ambition.
“The presidential function drives the political class into hysteria.”
Marc Dugain– Franceinfo Culture
As our Fifth Republic inexorably slides towards a parliamentary regime as disgraceful as the end of the Third Republic, we must question our institutions. Should we now place everything in the hands of one person who we know will not measure up?
External threats (armed conflicts, Russian interference, terrorism) are omnipresent in the narrative. Your president struggles to develop a common operational defense. Is this a way to call on Europe to rise up?
France is the target of all threats and all attempts at destabilization because it is one of the major economic powers in Europe and the only continental nuclear power. The Russians are convinced that a landlocked France would offer them military dominance over Europe. The Americans believe that a chaotic France is an opportunity to dismantle the European Union, which they detest because it hinders their economic and political hegemony.
“Either Europe manages to conceive of itself as a military power commensurate with its economic strength, or it is doomed to disappear by reliving some of the tragedies of the 20th century.”
Marc Dugain– Franceinfo Culture
There is a great concern in the novel about the impending rise of populism everywhere in Europe and the world. Is this inevitable? How can one resist it? Populism has been largely encouraged by the development of the digital age. We have given a voice to everyone without explaining that their voice no longer counts as such but as an instrument of manipulation in the service of economic and political interests. Samuel Beckett said that words are often an insult to silence, and on social networks, we express ourselves all the time. Trump speaks every day to mask from Americans that his apparently disordered actions follow a logic of opaque personal interest. Populism involves diverting people’s attention towards scapegoats while picking their pockets. To resist this lamentable trend, I have found only one way, writing and using the novel to inspire a new perspective.
The pressure exerted by digital giants on States seems, according to your text, to be the next fundamentally destabilizing threat… We are right in the middle of it. The anger of Trump and Vance towards Europe stems from our weak contribution to NATO but especially from the EU’s constraints on the digital industry. Democracy thrives on taxes. The main economy will soon be digital, which refuses to pay taxes to nations. It does not want any regulation of its content to unleash unbridled speech that fuels populism.
“The digital cartel opposes the State, its missions of wealth distribution and promotion of the common good.”
Marc Dugain– Franceinfo Culture
This is why they support extreme right-wing liberal movements.
In the novel, there is also a great yearning for simple life, respectful of the environment, liberated from capitalist imperatives, and digital manipulations. Is this a way to resist the chaos of the world or simply a temptation to retreat? If our ambition is not to exert power over others, to compensate by consuming more and more, to sink into an abyssal greed emulating the American model or Russian oligarchs, we can hope to converge towards a soothing model. I feel like I have lived in a time when our species was trying to take a reasonable direction, but that time has passed. The planet has gone off the rails, converging mafia interests undermine the long democratic progress, democrats sink into their error of deregulating the economy to the extent that they are completely enslaved to it. We have entered a tunnel with no visible end. At this stage, there is no political solution that is not linked to personal behavior changes. Everyone must look at themselves in the mirror, and it is often quite dazzling because we are the stars of contradictions.
“Submersion” by Marc Dugain, Albin Michel editions
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