OPINION. “What if the French left could take inspiration from Andy Burnham? » by Gaspard Gantzer, consultant and former advisor to François Hollande

There are the cult scenes, and then there are the scenes of Game of Thrones. Last truly mass cultural phenomenon, who does not remember the moment when Jon Snow, bastard son, it is believed, of Ned Stark, was proclaimed by an assembly of lords of the North the legitimate King in the NorthHAS ? The leaders then praise his independence, his strength of character, and his down-to-earth intelligence, proven in the field.

Across the Channel, a similar profile seems to appear, while the Labor Party is at half mast in the polls: Andy Burnham. While political families are torn apart in the United Kingdom as in France and alliances are impossible, recalling once again the War of the Five Kings of Westeros, how can we think that a man on the ground can come and reunite countries lacking political and social cohesion?

Andy Burnham has been mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017. In nine years, he has done what British regional metropolises almost never do: govern concretely, and make it known. He built Bee Network, an integrated transport network by remunicipalizing the bus lines that Thatcher had privatized in the 1980s, against resistance from operators and indifference from Westminster. He obtained the return of fare control, coordinated timetables, and a single transport ticket.

This is commonplace in any large European city; in England outside of London, this hasn’t existed for 40 years. Later, he managed the Covid crisis by publicly resisting Downing Street through a now famous impromptu press conference on the sidewalk, announcing live that the compensation promised to his territory was not up to the level, refusing to sign a containment agreement without financial guarantees for the most vulnerable workers. precarious. He lost this tug of war, but he was seen fighting it. He also won three times, with scores that cannot be explained by party discipline.

Already MP for Leigh from 2001 to 2016, here he is again in the House of Commons. The mechanics of his return to the national level deserve attention, because they are both very British and universally readable. For the first time in more than 60 years, a by-election was called specifically to offer a seat to someone who is not yet in Parliament, that is to say that a deputy resigned to make way for him, an extremely rare occurrence in the political culture of Westminster.

It should not be seen as a power grab, but as a recognition of its superiority to govern. The party, or at least part of it, decided that Burnham was worth more than a procedural rule. Success? Perhaps: polls put it at 61% among Labor activists facing a sitting Prime Minister. What makes his candidacy credible is not due to his charisma, quite similar to the other representatives, nor to his ideas, far from being revolutionary, but to the reality on the ground: he was re-elected mayor of Greater Manchester for a third term in 2024 with 63.4% of the votes.

In a country where parties are crumbling and where electoral loyalty is no longer acquired by anyone, a score like this is a total anomaly, which ends up attracting the biggest fish in the pond.

The honest answer is no. Not for lack of talent, but for lack of structure. French politics does not produce a Burnham because it did not create a Manchester. The metropolises have skills, but no power. The mayors manage, the prefects decide, and when something really works, it is the State which takes the credit or Europe which finances. Difficult to build popular legitimacy on delegations of competence.

Also, the path to the national level passes, in France, through Paris, whether through ministerial cabinets, parties, the great schools which lead to great careers. An elected official who stays in the region for too long ends up being publicly linked only to his region. Burnham left Westminster for Manchester. In the French political imagination, however, it is the opposite movement that determines destinies.

Result: the French left has been oscillating for ten years between two symmetrical impasses. On the one hand, an apparatus which has lost its popular roots but retains its reflexes of effective national leadership, and on the other, perhaps, a movement which speaks of the people without ever having really had to serve them concretely.

So no King in the North in France? Not so bad; perhaps our method is more akin to the providential man – or woman! A Daenerys Targaryen in short, who would come to deliver us from evil when everyone thinks she is missing… or a Jon Snow, under his new name, for those who followed to the end.