A Good Bastille Day
We think that the election of Donald Trump was the most extraordinary of the recent past, perhaps followed by the Brexit vote, but I venture that the French elections have been as consequential. The left and the right of French politics have been reduced to rubble, with some of their brightest drawn to President Macron’s centrist La Republique En Marche party. The parliamentary elections gave Mr. Macron an enormous majority, formed of many people who had never run for office before. They will be bright and diverse, but politically naïve, critics say, and opposition, probably in the form of paralyzing strikes, will derail reforms directed at more flexible labor laws and help for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Or, my guess, France has retired a lot of doctrinaire people and brought new talent into the political and commercial arenas. The people about to serve would never make it past a primary in the United States.
A few weeks ago, I was visiting with old friends about 40 miles southwest of Paris and they asked me if I would like to go to hear a candidate for the National Assembly. The candidate was a strange fellow named Cédric Villani. Strange that is, until I learned that he is one of the world’s most famous mathematicians, directed the Institut Henri Poincaré, which has 500 mathematicians, has lectured in more than 70 countries and, impressively, has won the Fields Medal, the major prize in mathematics. At 43, he has the gauntness of a long distance runner, wears a three-piece suit, a foulard tie, and a 4 inch silver spider on his left lapel. It may seem a bit foppish, but he is instantly recognizable. Taking notes in the town hall of Bures-sur-Yvette, I could not help thinking how Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer would look with spider lapel pieces. Better probably.
Villani began by asking, “What makes a country great? I am a mathematician so let me give you the example of the meter.” It turns out that this fundamental measurement was developed in perilous days of the French Revolution when people might have been thinking of themselves. Instead, French scientists developed a measure based on an invariant distance of the meridian from the North Pole to the Equator, passing through Paris. One ten-millionth of this distance is a meter. Other measures were developed, of volume (the liter), of temperature (degrees centigrade), of current, (the ampere) and all were based on a physical constant and are divisible by 10. The metric system is largely a French invention and science depends on it. France still is powerful in mathematics and Villani wants to keep it that way. He easily handled questions from union leaders and others who wanted to stay in the status quo, reminding them that it was confidence and social responsibility that make a country great.
Villani was elected and resigned as Director of the Institut Henri Poincaré, but he will represent a district that is rich in scientific and academic institutions, including the French nuclear research center in Saclay. The region, near Versailles, is a forest of construction cranes and a new Metro line will connect it to Paris. The French are not thinking small and they are not cutting back on science. The recent G20 meetings left the United States the odd country out. Nineteen others affirmed the need for addressing climate change. In France and in other countries I visited I felt sympathy for Americans, contempt for Donald Trump, and a growing confidence that Europe, for all its problems, can make its way without the United States.
President Macron, meanwhile, is taunting President Trump, inviting American scientists to come to France and make it their country. (I went to France at 22 and my advice to young scientists is to go for it) “Let’s make the world great again!” Mr. Macron says in English. Now, after the G20 meetings, Macron has invited Donald Trump to the Bastille Day celebrations on July 14. The French throw a fine parade, not one of those Russian or North Korean or Chinese parades of saluting soldiers goose stepping through a bleak square, but thousands of horses and riders in resplendent uniforms, fire fighters, soldiers, marching bands, and jet flyovers, all on the Champs Élysées, which is no one’s definition of grim. The whole country has a party. It is a sign of increasing European confidence that Mr. Trump was invited. Why Mr. Trump is going I don’t know but he does love a parade.
Richard Kessin is Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology Emeritus at Columbia University. He lives in Norfolk and can be reached at Richard.Kessin@gmail.com.