Antifascist … what else?
If I were an American, what would I say today? That’s the question I asked myself this morning as I read the news… from the front.
After the Republican Guard in Los Angeles, Washington and Portland, we’re now talking about the Army in Chicago. These are all Democratic cities now described as “war zones” by the head of the armed forces.
I’m a lawyer in a constitutional state, so by necessity I’m an anti-fascist.
When you take the time to understand what fascism is, it’s clear that we are and must all be anti-fascists, on the left and the right of the political spectrum.
According to fascism expert Emilio Gentile, fascism is a modern, nationalist, revolutionary and totalitarian political movement and ideology, which aims to achieve an anthropological revolution, transforming man and society to create a “new man” through the state, the single party, the mobilization of the masses, the cult of the leader and the suppression of opposition, with the aim of destroying liberal democracy and imposing itself as a radical alternative to the principles of modern freedom and equality (Qu’est ce que le fascisme – Gallimard).
So that’s what fascism is all about: totalitarianism, the cult of the leader, the suppression of opposition, the destruction of democracy and the values of freedom and equality that structure our cities through the law.
Whereas we jurists believe in the Law.
We believe in the law because it is enshrined in law.
We adhere to the law because we draw it up together in an ongoing democratic process and debate.
We don’t impose the law. It is imposed on us. It’s not the law of the strongest. Our rules don’t change from one day to the next, with decrees issued at the whim of the boss or archaic laws conveniently unearthed and then misused. We debate them freely, vote on them and then abide by them, without exception.
In line with our founding principles.
Liberté, égalité, démocratie, indépendance et vivre-ensemble, to take just the Preamble of our Federal Constitution, which is like so many others.
Because of the active defence of such conceptions, some would now be qualified as terrorists?
So be it, but let’s not forget that those who point the finger at these “terrorists” of a new kind are none other than those terrorized by law, democracy and equality.
As a lawyer in a state governed by the rule of law, I wouldn’t be afraid to tell them:
You, who are terrorized by the application of the law, can sue your judges, your prosecutors, your lawyers, all your opponents, but you will always come up against the power of our Law.
With us, force is nothing compared to the law.
Send us your reservists, as in Los Angeles, Washington, Portland and now Chicago. We’ll tell them about our Constitutions.
In this “land of the free, home of the brave”, we must never forget that courage means above all protecting democracy and freedoms, and opposing the dismantling of the foundations of a state which, through hard struggle, was one of the pioneers of the modern rule of law.
Because we’re lawyers, we’re anti-fascists.
That’s what I would have liked to claim for myself this morning (admittedly from the comfort of our Etude veveysanne, bathed in the wisps of smoke from the first coffee of the day) if I were an American.
But would I dare say it that way if I were an American in theUnitedStates?
I’m not sure anymore.
And it is against this backdrop of uncertainty that I measure the real courage of those in America who are fighting to uphold the rule of law and oppose the return of the law of the strongest.
LT
