An unprecedented discredit strikes the political, economic and media elites. But the French show common sense. Our exclusive survey proves it: they continue to place their trust in those who are close to them: family, doctors, teachers...
Psmall dialogue surprised in a pharmacy of the XVIIe district, in Paris: “I put you the generic medicine?” Customer response: "Really ? You think ? Can we trust the generics, with everything we hear? Another exchange seized, a few moments later, this time in a butcher's shop in the same district of Batignolles. “Is your beef really French? Asks the old lady ironically. - Of course, answers the butcher's clerk. - And it's really beef? Because, with everything you learn, you end up asking yourself...
It's true: who to trust? Who to trust? Pharmaceutical laboratories (Servier, in this case) are involved in large-scale health scandals; rogue industrialists (the directors of the Spanghero company) sell horse labeled "beef" which no one is able to trace. We even discover that the market for essential foods is, like the financial markets, managed by traders, obsessed above all with their profits. Are you surprised, after that, that meat, like finance, is crazy!
Worse: for months - years - a budget minister, Jérôme Cahuzac, lied about his account in Switzerland. Apostle of rigor, responsible for hunting down tax evaders and giver of lessons in his spare time, he turns out to be himself a tax delinquent, coupled with a liar. Do as I say, not as I do...
The whirlwind turnstile
For good measure, we discover that Claude Guéant, long described by the media as an irreproachable senior civil servant, a great civil servant, upright, honest, above suspicion, pays his bills in cash, juggles with cash paid when he was minister and sells, for an exorbitant price (€500.000!), two master paintings to a lawyer based in Malaysia without declaring it to the authorities. He even receives money from Jordan in his account, €25.000! But if the former Minister of the Interior also defrauds the tax authorities, if the former first cop in France has borderline behavior, then who can you (still) trust? Neither to the highest spiritual authorities of this country since the former Chief Rabbi of France Gilles Bernheim himself admitted to being only an "intellectual crook", while his admonition against homosexual marriage was praised until Roma! No more sacred, nothing but plagiarism!
Who can we (still) trust when, from Gandrange (Nicolas Sarkozy, 2008-2009) to Florange (François Hollande, 2012-2013), (very) high-level political leaders do not keep their campaign promises? Forgetful or incapable, it doesn't matter, it is the most powerful, the presidents, who, one after the other, lose their majority of reference as of hope. Who to cling to when the current head of state himself seems powerless to get us out of the crisis? Most economists did not see it coming, any more than they anticipated the previous ones. Bankruptcy of the “knowledgeable” who, however, still hold the upper hand in the media, which increases the discomfort of the “ignorant” from below. How not to be exasperated in front of this turnstile of foutriquets? The most knowledgeable experts - at least, the most media-oriented ones - get it wrong almost all the time. The meteorologists themselves lose their Latin, so much the climate seems out of whack. However, all of them, each in his specialty, persist in the fearless hammering of certainties which we know, however, have only a chaotic relationship with reality. The proof by Jean-François Copé who continues, for nearly six months, to believe that he is the legitimate leader of the UMP, when he was convicted of cheating. This does not prevent him, all shame drunk, from contesting the legitimacy of François Hollande who, however, was democratically elected.
This is why Marianne considered it useful and urgent to ask the Harris Interactive polling institute to test the level of confidence of the French. Who do they still give credit to? If the results of this survey confirm some of our intuitions, they first force us to debunk a false idea, frequently relayed in the corridors of political and media power: no, the French are not followers of "all rotten" . Far from there ! Admittedly, the voters of Marine Le Pen are more reassembled than the sympathizers of Jean-Luc Mélenchon who, themselves, are more disillusioned than all the others. Certainly, mistrust is very deep in the working classes and among 25-49 year olds. Yet, despite business, despite Hollande's failures, despite right-wing hysteria, despite the European disaster, despite the crash of our elites, despite all this recent news that is permanently undermining their confidence, the 1153 people polled by Harris Interactive say evidence of an almost reassuring common sense.
Irreversible damage
Who to believe? The question is far from trivial. In times of crisis - economic, social, moral - it is even essential. Already, in the XVIIe century, the English philosopher John Locke had theorized the importance of this concept without which the transition from the state of nature to civil society is impossible. Without this necessary trust that the people are supposed to grant to authority and its representatives, there is no democracy, no market economy, no peaceful social relations. One can, of course, think that generalized doubt is salutary. Yesterday, we abandoned ourselves too much with our eyes closed to totalitarian ideologies not to congratulate ourselves today that they are unsealed. The problem ? We often open them on a vacuum!
Everywhere, confidence is damaged, badly. Otherwise, why would La Poste have felt the need to create a trust observatory? Even Darty, who based his success on his famous "trust contract", is now experiencing serious economic difficulties. Why did the Ministry of Health launch a “trust pact with hospital staff” a few weeks ago? Why is the best-selling book in this field the Guide to 4000 Useful, Useless or Dangerous Drugs? Why would the government have launched what it itself called “a new pact of trust between the State and local authorities”? If everyone wants to regain everyone's trust, it's good that she got lost along the way.
What does the Harris Interactive survey say? First, that the vast majority of French people continue to place their trust in those who are close to them: their family (89%), which in these times of crisis seems to be the ultimate refuge; their doctors (86%), despite all the health crises, despite all the doubts about the drugs; their butchers (81%), despite the repetition of junk food scandals... But also to those whose job seems difficult to them or, in any case, socially useful: firefighters (92%), nurses (91%), craftsmen (80%), soldiers (76%), farmers (75%), teachers and police (71%)... Similarly, while only 57% trust civil servants in general, the French save gladly the civil servants they meet regularly: nurses (91%), teachers (71%) and even, we repeat, those responsible for maintaining order (71%)...
No, the French do not put everyone in the same bag of indignity. If 57% of respondents are wary of employee unions, they are 70% to be wary of employers' unions. A score that Laurence Parisot's successor at the head of Medef will do well to ponder.
Even more revealing, the credibility of SME bosses peaks at 75%, while that of CAC 40 bosses peaks at 31%. The shamelessness of certain behaviors has caused considerable, even irreversible damage: indecent wages in times of crisis, relocations experienced as so many unpatriotic acts, redundancy plans perceived as so many injustices when the dividends paid to shareholders, they , continue to increase. These big bosses who ask the State - and therefore the French - for efforts that they themselves do not provide are no longer credible.
Similarly, if craftsmen collect 80% confidence index, supermarkets, they only total 42% (against 55% distrust). The gap is just as abysmal between local elected officials and national politicians: 53% confidence for the former, only 22% for the latter. From now on, we understand better why so many deputies and senators, right and left alike, staunchly defend the accumulation of mandates: locally, we appreciate them as much as we distrust them at the national level. The results of the Harris Interactive poll also confirm the study published last December by the Center for Political Research at Sciences-Po (Cevipof): 57% of French people place their trust in their mayor, but only 28% are in the same state of mind vis-à-vis the Prime Minister and 40% vis-à-vis their deputy. As if, unlike the government and parliamentarians who, however, pass the law, the mayor had the power to positively change their lives.
Of course, there is the crisis. Of course, there is unemployment breaking records, factories closing, purchasing power plummeting, taxes rising, wages and pensions stagnating, all these young people struggling to find housing and finance their studies, these difficult weekends that begin on the 10th... But if, at least, there was confidence. If, at least, we could believe those who know, adhere to the speeches of those who direct us, those who, precisely, are supposed to show us the way to follow...
One would have to be blind not to see that the leading party in France is now that of the abstentionists. However, the number of these "dropouts" will not stop growing, because it is an unprecedented discredit which strikes most of the elites, politicians and the media - and, particularly, the executive power itself. The day before yesterday, Jacques Chirac. Yesterday, Nicolas Sarkozy. Today, François Hollande. One would have to be inconsistent not to try to understand the reasons for this profound disrepute. Never had the rejection of a newly elected President of the Republic been so rapid. How to (still) trust someone who, during his campaign, had promised to carry out a major tax reform, promised to make the throats of all-powerful finance, promised to stand up to Chancellor Angela Merkel to redirect the European policy towards less austerity and more growth?
The "Nabilla zero" level
What is in question, in reality, is less the competence than the authority of the leader, the faith in his ability to lead the country and to get it out of the mess in which it has been sinking inexorably for nearly five years. . So a question of trust. We could be content, as the right, Le Figaro, Le Point and L'Express do every day, to overwhelm the president with criticism, to ridicule him as a "cushy weakling", to challenge his policy, to question his communication or still deplore the radicalization of a right-wing electorate which, basically, never considered him worthy enough to exercise the supreme office. But that would obviously be to evade the annoying observation: the global questioning of all the vertical institutions, of all these famous intermediary bodies which, until now, have structured French society. The trade unions, whose influence continues to decrease; the media, whose credit is in freefall; the great clerks of the State, suspected - not to say accused - of connivance with the world of finance and the private sector; the famous “experts” who, by dint of making mistakes, end up speaking in a vacuum, for lack of ever recognizing their errors; the big bosses of the CAC 40, whose stratospheric salaries have lifted them off from the real world; the bankers, who have continued to grow rich during the crisis...
Let us add to this observation the disappearance of the directors of conscience who until then served as landmarks, compasses, moral references: the clergy for belief, teachers for knowledge, scientists for health, philosophers... Those who made a good figure in the "Grand Journal" of Canal +, Ollivier Pourriol, ended up leaving, tired that he was especially recommended to be silent... smiling! We prefer to ask stars to philosophize or engage in politics. The “Nabilla zero” level of public speaking.
Result ? At a time when France is facing an economic crisis without precedent in modern history, when it must succeed in radical changes, the French no longer know who to turn to. Why, moreover, would they give a blank check to the apostles of progress when they no longer believe in progress itself? And for good reason: each new reform, imposed on them, looks not like progress, progress, improvement, but regression. Social Security ? Planed. Taxes ? Increased. The purchasing power ? Invariably down. Retirees ? Challenges. And we would be surprised if the citizens lost confidence?
In reality, our survey confirms above all the discredit of the “Parisian” elites. For 75% of French people, politicians exercising national functions - ministers, deputies, senators... - are no longer trustworthy. They have disappointed too much, betrayed too much, lied too much. Jean-Marc Ayrault provides a perfect example: as long as he was judged as mayor of Nantes, the city where, it seems, one lives best in France, his rating was at the highest. Installed in Matignon, he is rejected by two thirds of the French.
In the same way, for almost seven out of 10 French people, the Medef (70%), bankers (68%), bosses of large companies (66%) and "expert" economists (54%) are discredited. Journalists - and we expected it - are swept away by this same wave of mistrust: only 37% of respondents still trust them, against 60% who no longer believe them. The diagnosis is known: they are reproached pell-mell - and often, let us have the frankness to admit it, rightly - their incapacity to tell the real, their propensity to escalate polemics which only interest themselves, their connivance with ruling elites themselves demonetized. If we add that, like the “experts”, few are those who recognize their mistakes, the antimedia mass is said.
Thanks to the Cahuzac scandal, François Hollande thought he had found a solution by imposing on his ministers and parliamentarians the publication of their heritage. As if knowing our elected representatives better made them more credible... The return of confidence, in reality, depends only on the results, economic and social, that the executive will obtain. The president has understood this well, who continues to promise that one day the unemployment curve will be reversed. In the meantime, each desperate new statistic on employment, growth, debt or the foreign trade deficit further erodes the confidence that the French place in those who decide for them.
Lieutenant-Colonel Gérald Boutolleau of the Paris firefighters, more than fifteen years in the business, is delighted to be on the podium in our survey: “Especially in first place.” But he doesn't say he's surprised. “It reflects well what we see on the ground. I don't want to hit on the relief colleagues in the broad sense, but we are seeing an increasingly strong psychological and social distress, at the same time as a disengagement of the responders: private services such as ambulances are expensive, emergencies are overwhelmed, people no longer know where to turn. Apart from firefighters. They appreciate that we don't judge them, they don't give us the repressive label of the policeman. We intervene just as much for the malaise of a politician as for a Roma family, in an affluent neighborhood or in a low-rent housing in the suburbs. This is the spirit of our code of honor: "I don't want to know your religion, your race, your profession, I will make sure to help you." The few sex scandals have not tarnished our reputation: people quickly turn the page.
The confidence of the French in the actors of society
TECHNICAL SHEET Survey conducted online from April 29 to 30, 2013, on a sample of 1153 individuals representative of the French population aged 18 and over, using the Harris Interactive access panel. Quota method and adjustment applied to the following variables: sex, age, socio-professional category and region of residence.
The crisis has made it possible to rediscover the hyperpositive aspects of the family, assures Thierry Vidor, director general of Families of France, not the least surprised that the French place 89% of their confidence in the family. It is a shock absorber and many are those who today would live with difficulty if they were not helped by the seniors. We are no longer in the time of "Families, I hate you". For thirty years, it is in the family that we will take refuge or recharge our batteries when life is difficult. It is synonymous with disinterestedness, we look at the other as such and not as an object of consumption: we are in a totally transparent relationship, made of respect, trust, solidarity and love. It is an unbreakable bond, an unconditional recognition and without judgment.
This survey proves that we are not held responsible for food scandals", enthuses René Louail, breeder of labeled chickens in the Côtes-d'Armor and regional elected official (EELV), at the sight of the 75% of respondents trusting to farmers. Even more credible than the farmers, but basically in the same leading group, the butchers are given the score of 81%. "The company has integrated that it is industry and mass distribution that are destroying the image of the meat industry", confirms Pascal Buffard, butcher based in Choisy-le-Roi (94) whose reputation continues to grow, fueled by the quality of its products and its advice.
The whole paradox is there: how, while the shock wave of the horse meat scandal is struggling to dissipate, butchers and farmers do they keep a special place in the hearts of the French? “Citizens understood where the cheaters were,” adds René Louail. Moreover, supermarkets are only credited with the average score of 49%. "It could have been worse, is surprised Pascal Buffard, but their permanent campaigns on prices allow them to gain the flattering image of defenders of the purchasing power of the French." “Your survey confirms others, made at the time of the Agricultural Show, continues René Louail. So it doesn't surprise me. In my opinion, all the conditions are met for a new contract to be signed between the company and the farmers, the last one dating from 1962 thanks to Edgard Pisani. Society expects us to change and tells us that it trusts us. If the government took the risk of missing out on this opportunity, it would be a serious mistake. He has to do it." Message sent to Jean-Marc Ayrault, Prime Minister, and to Stéphane Le Foll, Minister of Agriculture.
«I am extremely surprised”, jubilant Virginie, 32, French teacher in a college classified in ZEP in Asnières (Hauts-de-Seine), discovering that 71% of French people trust teachers. We practice a profession that is quite devalued. We are criticized for being on vacation all the time, etc. I am delighted to see that we are granted such confidence. The problem is that, as often, it is enough for a parent to have to do with a smoker teacher for him to make a generality of a particular case. I also think that we benefit in a certain way from the loss of credibility of the elites: we don't earn a lot of money and we don't make a profit on the backs of the students! There is also perhaps the fact that, since the arrival of the left in power, teachers have only struck once - and this one has been little followed. Repeated social movements, as has been the case in recent years, have disastrous effects on public opinion.
One in four citizens “do not trust” the police. Philippe Capon, secretary general of the Unsa-Police union, is nonetheless pleasantly surprised by the results of our investigation. "Some people denigrate the police all day long," he said. But, with a total of 71% of respondents who trust us, it is clear that they are in the minority. The police station is a protective place, not a place where you get beaten up. Minor facts are hyped up to denigrate the police, but when people have a problem, they call us. Many have realized that we are doing our job, even if justice does not always follow. The police are not on a pedestal, but in times of economic crisis, the reference to order is more present. The police are the last bastion, the last reference. She settles intra-family disputes much better than before. However, it remains frowned upon when it verbalizes, or when the policy of numbers forces it to be solely repressive.
We have to be fair to the politicians, right? Laurent Vimont, the head of the Century 21 network, is not far from the truth, but the verdict of the respondents is worse than expected. Dunce cap ! Question of confidence, the real estate agents arrive at the back of the pack, preceded by a tad by the political personnel exercising functions at the national level: 76% of the French do not trust them. Basically, the verdict is not surprising. In an Ipsos survey commissioned by the network in 2012, customers already regretted the lack of transparency and the professional inadequacy of the agents. “The profession has never been able to call itself into question because of a law which does not impose initial training on real estate agents. Customers entrust them with the project of a lifetime, and nothing is asked of them”, annoys Laurent Vimont, who has been campaigning for two years to put an end to this French exception. He is not the only one. Jean-François Buet, president of the Fnaim, the main federation of the profession, like Sébastien de Lafond, maverick in the profession and co-founder of the Meilleursagents.com site, also deplore the ignorance of agents in legal, fiscal and financial matters. But is that enough to explain such disenchantment? “There is a lot of suspicion as soon as you touch large sums, says Jean-François Buet. When someone says, "I'm in real estate," it's misunderstood. On the other hand, if we say: "I spend my time looking for accommodation", it is something else. Words matter.” "There is a non-zero proportion of agents who do not behave well, and a bad experience marks you more than a good one", adds Sébastien de Lafond who pleads for the creation of an order or a system of self-regulation to punish bad apples. According to him, the evil is deep: in seventy years of existence, the profession has "never managed to win the trust of customers". In fact, for years, real estate agents, driven by the exceptional dynamism of the stone market (the square meter has increased by 100% in ten years!), did not need to make great efforts to return warrants. “Today, as it is more difficult, we wonder,” laughs Laurent Vimont. “We are responsible for our own turpitudes because we have not always made the correct text explanation to our customers, recognizes Jean-François Buet. The service is neither understood nor justified if we do not explain to our client that we are going to supervise his sale, secure it, set up a marketing plan, negotiate prices, keep him informed. Sébastien de Lafond drives the point home: “Real estate agents have not been able to teach and explain their added value. It is estimated that their role is limited to opening the doors and receiving the 5% commission.
Jérôme Cahuzac, the liar
The Budget Minister, apostle of rigor and pack leader in the hunt for tax evaders, held an account in Switzerland. So fraudster himself. And, with that, liar. Tax offender and Pinocchio, the total!
Jean-François Copé, the cheater
He keeps repeating that François Hollande, although democratically elected, is not legitimate to hold the office of Head of State. He, on the other hand, whose cheating in the internal election of the UMP are proven, continues to act as if he were the legitimate leader of the right. The kind of character you spontaneously want to trust...
Gilles Bernheim, the mythocopier
High moral authority, the chief rabbi of France, who presented himself as a great intellectual philosopher, not only lied about his diploma, but he also plagiarized with all his might. Who to believe if even the chief rabbi is not trustworthy?
Barthélémy Aguerre, the thug
The CEO of the Spanghero company sold horse meat labeled "beef" to brands of frozen lasagna or Bolognese sauce. A deception of which he himself says he was the victim because of an unscrupulous trader. If the meat market needs traders, wonder why meat, like finance, is crazy!
Jacques Servier, the heart of stone
The founding president of the Servier group, already prosecuted for "deception" and "fraud", was indicted for "homicide and involuntary injury" in the second part of the case of the Mediator, an antidiabetic used as an appetite suppressant which resulted in fatal heart disease resulting in the death of 500 to 2 people. If even the drugs are suspect, how do you cure mistrust?
Jean-Claude Mas, the crook
The founder of the Var company PIP waited to be at the helm of the Marseille criminal court, where he faces four years in prison, to finally ask forgiveness from the victims of his deception in the case of fraudulent breast implants.
The precipice is yawning: while our respondents have 80% and 75% confidence respectively in craftsmen and SME bosses - good news - a large majority, 66%, on the contrary mistrust the CEOs of large companies and employers' unions. (70%). A lack of credit which hardly surprises Hervé Lambel, candidate for the presidency of the Medef and co-founder of the circle of Creators of jobs and wealth of France (Cerf): “Big bosses, hand on heart, hammer in the media their ethics and their good will in terms of employment, even advocate respect for their subcontractors. Except that, in the real life of their business, their hundreds of executives, deprived of real autonomy, make thousands of decisions based on computer-generated financial or prudential rules that violate the promises made. This is why CEOs arouse growing mistrust among their employees, customers and suppliers. As for the employers' unions, business leaders, among themselves, are even more severe than your respondents: at 75%, they do not consider themselves well represented, in particular by the Medef, which has allowed itself to be locked into debates concerning the only top management, such as those on stock options, dividends, retirement hats, rather than seeking, in particular, to prevent business failures which threaten 317 jobs in France!
Franck Marsal, general practitioner in Etoile-sur-Rhône (Drôme), is not surprised to learn that the vast majority of French people (86%) trust doctors. “I work in a village where I have cared for the same families for twenty years, this past creates privileged links. The general practitioner occupies a special place, he is the doctor for hard knocks: we are seen as a brother, a father, a confidant. We are aware of everything, professional worries, divorce... The health scandals - Mediator, pharmaceutical labs - have not altered their confidence. People know the difference between the stashed fortune of Dr Cahuzac and Dr Marsal who drives his old Mégane. The Internet hasn't diminished their confidence either, my patients document themselves, it doesn't bother me, on the contrary, it feeds the discussion. My concern is that everyone stays in their place: I'm not here to pat them on the shoulder. Later, I go to Marguerite, over 80 years old, I don't use tu, I say "madam". I am there to listen, consult and summarize.”
source: Marianne.net
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