The decisive electoral cycle of 2017 has ended, and no new politics has grown out of it. The Left remains ill, but at least in theory, its radical wing occupies a more favorable position: all the more reason not to squander this opportunity to respond to an urgent need.

The shattering of the political field, exceptionally high abstention, and traditional parties in retreat: all these indicators bring France’s true political — as well as systemic — crisis into sharp relief. Plastering over or trimming around the edges of the Constitution will no longer suffice. Reviving the Left to its former condition no longer makes sense. Our time calls for an unprecedented rupture at all levels. It demands a complete refoundation or metamorphosis, not mere readjustment.

The workers’ movement has slumped — as the crisis of trade unionism clearly demonstrates — and no social movement has emerged to pick up the slack. Radicalism is stuck between its default pragmatism, derived from the idea that utopia is no longer available, and nostalgia for better times. It is not always clear if these happier times refer to the days of revolutionary hope or to yesteryear’s social democracy.