The War of the Élysée will not take place, Christophe Barbier

Christophe Barbier is the deputy editor-in-chief of L'Express. He has previously published, with Grasset, Les derniers jours de François Mitterrand and La Comédie des orphelins. First, let's clarify that Christophe Barbier has two passions: theater and politics. As such, he heads a political department in a major weekly newspaper and leads a theater troupe (specializing in plays by Feydeau and Labiche). So here is an essayist who considers politics as theater. And from there, to use theater to tell the story of politics... La guerre de l'Elysée n'aura pas lieu is, therefore, a hilarious play written in alexandrines, whose plot takes place a few days before the... next presidential election. Two candidates (two characters) - Jospin, Chirac - will confront each other. The play opens in Chirac's office, where he is speaking with an usher, Albert. It turns out that a cantonal election is to be held in the (imaginary) canton of Garombert, and that it will have major consequences... Three characters appear successively: Claude Chirac, Dominique de Villepin, Bernadette Chirac. In the third act, and for reasons impossible to summarize, it will turn out that neither Chirac nor Jospin has an interest in being elected - because the new President will have to manage a series of unsolvable problems. The play ends on a Sunday evening, a few minutes before the verdict of the polls...