This is one of the (many) peculiarities that distinguished Michel Rocard from François Mitterrand: “At Rocardians, you had to be on time”, confesses Yves Colmou, who was one of the close advisers of the former Prime Minister, who died nearly seven years ago. The usage has not changed. Monday evening, the small crowd invited to the preview of a documentary by Jean-Michel Djian on Rocard (1) arrived in clusters well before the hour. We see all the former Rocardians, faithful as well as defrocked: Jean-Paul Huchon (ex-director of cabinet at Matignon), Claude Évin (ex-Minister of Social Affairs), Manuel Valls (who has moved away from Rocardism), but also the ban and back ban of triumphant socialism. Among these, François Hollande, Jean-Marc Ayrault, Bernard Cazeneuve, Jean Glavany or even the evening host, Jack Lang, since the screening took place at the Arab World Institute.
His neighbor from Corsica, Jacques Dutronc, adored him. “A Rocard, or nothing!” the singer laughs in the film. During his lifetime, Michel Rocard provoked both enthusiasm and rejection within the PS. The Mitterrandists did not like this Protestant who advocated the long term in politics, the supremacy of facts over arrangements, respect for intermediary bodies, the secrecy of exchanges, discussion, always discussion, trust too…
Seven years after his death, all of the political personnel, in particular socialists, praise these virtues with a certain sense of syncretism. “Rocardism is the praise of negotiation and discussion, which takes on its full meaning with the heavy conflict that the country is experiencing”, confides to Point François Hollande between two hugs with his old fellow travelers present at projection. The former head of state completes, as if we hadn’t quite understood: “The method is not the goal, but it is necessary. This may explain the current French malaise. »
Through this documentary, based in particular on the writings of Michel Rocard entrusted by his widow, Sylvie Rocard, the director Jean-Michel Djian wanted to show the modernity of Rocard’s thought. Who remembers, for example, that in 1989 the then Prime Minister organized in The Hague a major international conference on the environment, a prefiguration of today’s COPs? A few faithful maintain the flame. This is the case of Jean-François Merle, former assistant and chief of staff of Rocard. The man, still wearing a very awkward beard necklace from the 1980s, is responsible for the Michelrocard.org newsletter, and organizes conferences where Rocard’s thinking sheds light on current issues. “We continue, we have long been in the minority at the PS, which creates solidarity”, laughs Yves Colmou.
But Rocard’s thinking has withered over the years. “The advanced, internationalist social democracy he represented is no longer embodied today. There is still a humus,” admits Djian. In the documentary, however, we hear Emmanuel Macron trying to capture the legacy. “He says ‘it was Rocard who put me on the track'”, notes Jean-Michel Djian. François Hollande confirms: when he met the future head of state, he said he was a Rocardian. But Rocard himself weighs this filiation: “He suggests in the film that Macron is his heir, before understanding that Macron is like the others”, corrects Jean-Michel Djian.
The pundits of socialism present at the Institute of the Arab World do not scratch their heads for very long. No, decidedly, Rocard has no heirs. And especially not Macron, even if the Head of State makes more moderate use of 49.3 than the Prime Minister of 1988, also caught in the grip of a relative majority. Michel Rocard used the famous article, world record 28 times (the 49.3 only exists in France), but he also knew how to forge occasional majorities thanks to the talent of Guy Carcassonne, magician of parliamentary alliances. “Michel Rocard respected the unions, the discussion with all the parties, the respect of the stages during the negotiations, he did not praise the rule of law. All that is no longer relevant at all, ”observes Claude Évin, one of the most loyal to the former mayor of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, aiming without saying so at Emmanuel Macron.
Michaël Delafosse, the young mayor of Montpellier, is another potential heir, in particular because he was, in his early political years, committed to the future Prime Minister of Mitterrand (like Manuel Valls and… Benoît Hamon). But perhaps the undisputed expert in rocardism Jean-Paul Huchon holds the key. His former chief of staff at Matignon sees only one successor to Michel Rocard, a single man capable of endless dialogue and succeeding through a sense of compromise: CFDT boss Laurent Berger.
1. Me, Michel Rocard – I will go to sleep in Corsica, broadcast on France 3 Corsica on May 2 at 8:30 p.m., on France 3 during the second half of May. The book Rocard, the disenchanted enchanter, by Jean-Michel Djian, is published on May 4.
