There is no good having the greying by days

There is no good having the greying by days. On the political scene as in the cases, the old players are more rating. Too many broken promises, accumulated failures. On a background of strong disillusionment, being claimed of youth with, if possible, fresh ideas and a hope of tomorrow singing.

While in the Elysee Palace, Jacques Chirac (74 years) prepares the best that it can release, Lionel Jospin (69 years old) still course its impossible return: its White mane, last summer in La Rochelle, has hardly moved the militants, which he have not left the slightest chance to Ségolène Royal (53 years). The affront was especially badly felt that former Prime Minister the thought too societal, not enough politics, two words not serious. And yet, it is very political criteria that Ségolène Royal has won. Symbolized it the failure of 2002, it the victory of 2004. He was to meet the point about a more remote Socialist vulgate of the real, she dared to appoint what would not in the balance sheet jospinien: 35 hours and security. He proposed to revive of improbable balances between the different trends of the plural left. It attempts to invent a new left which is still barely define the doctrine and the contours.

What happened to the left in 2006 was the equivalent of what can cause a tsunami: all codes governing the operation of the old party stole shattered. First, the royalist wave was a phenomenon of polls before a Palace revolution. It has not only eliminated the old generation. It has also rejected of the middle-aged full of ambitions, as François Hollande and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, have had the wrong do not measure that the time was the daring. For Laurent Fabius, who thought he could triumph in the old recipes mitterrandiennes, it was swept.

In the business world, the blow of broom was not less brutal. Antoine Zacharias Ejecté da Vinci by shareholders who held too greedy. Noël Forgeard Appreciation of EADS after a controversy over its stockoptions and delays in the A380. Pierre Levi Sacked of the Faurecia group for a corruption scandal. Since mid-2005, more than 20 large French companies have changed pattern. Not only because the shareholders are more quick than in the past to punish misconduct or demand results. As in politics, there is also the blows of fate the disappearance at sea of Edouard Michelin and especially the effect "papy boom." Everywhere, the retirements accelerating, sometimes little prepared the decision of Jean-Martin Folz has created the surprise in PSA , often anticipated Total, l ' Oréal, Schneider Electric, BNP Paribas... They pave the way for a new generation of leaders, in general more international buffs than their predecessors and therefore more in phase with the air of the time.

The winds of change blow hard, but all the forces of the past are resistant. Take Nicolas Sarkozy. It was the first, in 2002, to capture the dynamics of rupture. To stand out from Jacques Chirac, it was very far in criticism of the French model (including denouncing the Republican pseudo-égalité) and the statement of disturbing proposals (positive discrimination). All remaining his Minister. His freedom of tone has been pleased to the French and it is his popularity that he has built his political conquest, becoming a compelling candidate for camp. And yet, over the end of 2007 advance, it is forced to put water in his wine, called the "quiet" adjective for the word "break", committed to the questioning and search for the accolade of Jacques Chirac. His situation resembles that of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who had built its legitimacy on its action of Minister like him, and who, in 1974, was elected not on the theme of the failure but on air of "change in continuity". Which corresponded to the reality. Because it breaks never entirely with his own camp, under penalty of being incapable of the gathering. This applies as well to the right than the left. And Nicolas Sarkzoy should gather the right, Ségolène Royal must unite the left. Or if it is successful the OPA on the candidature in the Elysee Palace, it is not yet created the synthesis between the culture of the PS and its own troops who fed on the milk of participatory democracy, appear for the less detonative in the Party of elected officials.

In business, also, the forces of the past shall. But they do not exactly on the same register. Where policies exist, they often prefer to accompany change. When a pattern has had time to prepare his estate, it is not uncommon to find in the background as a guarantor of the continuity of a certain culture that has the wealth of the company. A l ' Oréal, Lindsay Owen-Jones, which was itself formed by François Dalle, passed the torch to Jean-Paul Agon, but remains Chairman of the Board of Directors. Just as Michel Pébereau who, since 2003, keeps an eye on the strategy of BNP Paribas while his dauphin Baudouin Prot took orders. And could multiply examples. The Anglo-Saxons sometimes have difficulty understanding this almost monarchical operation that leaves it to the CEO to choose his successor and to accompany him. Remains that the result is often more constructive than what happens in high political spheres: turbulent of the Ve Republic history that an incumbent President is always difficult to choose his successor and to foster its rise for the good reason that it is to judge any to its height.

Therefore, do not be surprised that those who guignent the place rushing in stretchers. The presidential election of 2007 is a model of its kind: the two leading candidates, Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal, are of primo homebuyers. Contrary to what was produced in 1988, 1995 and 2002, neither was involved in a cohabitation as Prime Minister or President of the Republic. The wind of renewal and rejuvenation as ever. This close as in the background a veteran ensures. He was seventy-eight years old, he is in his sixth presidential fight and he dreams again create a surprise. His name: Jean-Marie Le Pen.