Harlem Désir

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani refers to Harlem Désir as a political figure rather than as a thinker. He uses him to illustrate what he calls the "false left", the left that defines itself first of all by its opposition to Le Pen1. He links him to the contrast between "mon pote" ("my pal") and "mon beauf" ("my redneck brother-in-law"), which he presents as a false divide in French politics2. Above all, he stresses where the movement came from: he describes it as a creation of the Mitterrandian left, launched a generation later3, and as an initiative promoted by Mitterrand4. He points out a paradox: the same Mitterrand who is said to have once shouted "dehors les métèques" ("out with the wogs") later founds this movement5. These remarks come up from 2019 to 2025, in sessions and interviews on Clouscard, on worldliness and on the betrayal of May '68, with no notable change over time. For him, the name serves to show how the left in power built its own divides.

1. 1Ibn Battûta19 Feb 2020 · 57:03
2. 2Saint Jean30 Jun 2019 · 1:07:01
3. 3La mondanité chez Clouscard - Le choc des mondes ?9 Jul 2023 · 1:48:19
4. 4[ENTRETIEN] DOMINIQUE PAGANI - Michel Clouscard et la trahison de mai 687 Feb 2025 · 53:40
5. 5#11 UKRAINE : La mathématique unit les hommes, la politique les divise (Aristote)24 Mar 2022 · 1:34:53

Summary produced automatically from 5 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.