“Politics is responsibility, not a show”, said Msgr. Hippolyte Simon, archbishop of Clermont and vice president of French bishops, while commenting for SIR Europe last Sunday’s voting abstentions in France, at the first round of legislative elections, reaching the record level of 43%. “We are sorry that there are many people thinking that voting is not a duty, though I understand voting is difficult, because often one does not know how to make a choice”. “These elections – he says – determine the people sitting in the National Assembly. People locally known. Therefore, the vote comes after an effort, a will. After a choice”. But in this period, says the archbishop, “great importance was given to the media show, in a superficial way, revealing that there is no real training in the civil society”. Msgr. Simon points out that the political debate “focuses on pension age limit and how many school days per week, either four or five. Those are actually decisions on the ordinary aspects of life. They are practical decisions, though important decisions”. And he says: “It is also difficult when you don’t have all information available. You get the impression that something is always missing. And that is not responsibility of the media only, but also of associations, of politics itself. I wonder what political parties do to train their militants”.

13/06/2012 -