In this book, Philippe Bas is committed to bringing the Republic's heritage to life, to showing what we owe it, but he is alarmed by its growing vulnerability. The Republic is losing self-confidence and fragmenting. Instead of giving it new strength, the political debate is becoming caricatured. Institutions are suffocated, the links of democratic representation weakened, the municipality and local freedoms abused. National solidarity is unable to cope with new social challenges. Secularism seems to have broken down in the face of communitarianism and Islamism. The State is overwhelmed by challenges that have remained unaddressed for too long, in particular those of debt and global warming.

In a bogged down Europe, the Republic no longer finds the extra power it needs to solve the problems of the French. Yet, against the destructive forces at work, the need for a Republic continues to grow.

To combat discouragement, indifference and scepticism, the author explores the paths of a regained, living, concrete, audacious, determined Republic, leaving no one behind.

For all those concerned about the disturbances of democracy, it gives reasons for hope and action rather than taking refuge in nostalgia.


Marked by the history of the Republic and imbued with its values, successively a great public servant, a member of the government, elected from the Normandy countryside, Philippe Bas, Senator of the Channel, has chaired the Senate's Law Commission since 2014. In 2018, he conducted the parliamentary inquiry into the Benalla affair. Former Secretary General of the Elysée and Minister of Jacques Chirac, former President of the Manche Departmental Council, he was also a very close collaborator of Simone Veil, Jacques Barrot and the President of Senegal, Abdou Diouf.

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