“Libé” returns to meet the French who made the news in our columns to talk about the presidential election. Today Mircea Sofonea, epidemiologist and self-proclaimed “citizen humanist”. Disappointed by the political debate, the academic would like the white vote to be recognized.
“In terms of the health crisis, above all I expect a dedicated debate.” Focused on health issues, Mircea Sofonea, epidemiologist at the University of Montpellier, saw this presidential election disillusioned with politics. The 31-year-old researcher has established himself as one of the serious commentators on the Covid-19 crisis. Regularly questioned in the written press, but also on television: he has been on the sets 150 times in two years. What to familiarize yourself with his precise phrasing and his big glasses.
The previous episode of the series “Their say”
Since April 2020, Release interact with him regularly. By text, phone, or email. Messages sometimes sent in the middle of the night. His team offers models on the progress of the epidemic. It is therefore in the front row to measure the adequacy of the measures to the reality of the epidemic circulation, to respond to media requests and, above all, to understand the characteristics of the Sars-Cov-2 virus. Not trivial. “I experienced it as a timeless period, exceptional for any biologist. At first, I worked up to 100 hours a week. Day and night merged. I really felt that public research is not a disconnected ideal but has meaning for society.”
“The oppositions have very rarely taken hold of the Covid-19”
Now that the war in Ukraine has taken precedence over the Covid in the media, it is time to ask long-term questions. “Media solicitations are less frequent and focus more on substantive issues. It’s more interesting”, judge the researcher. He regrets that the candidates for the Elysée have absolutely no position on how to manage the Covid-19 over the long term. “Before talking about what I expect from the president, I especially hope for a confrontation of public health programs. In the absence of debates, the person elected will have carte blanche. The scientist is methodical. We debate, we argue, then we decide. Unfortunately, he finds that “The opposition very rarely took hold of Covid-19, certainly because they would not have done better, or even they would have done worse, given certain positions. They didn’t feel in their element.
The words are weighed. He always seems in control, like a politician, even when you can hear annoyance dawning in his voice. Mircea Sofonea is not anathema. Question of scientific credibility: “I try to refrain from political criticism. Otherwise, my academic statement could be questioned as to its integrity.
Even if we leave the subject of Covid-19, Mircea Sofonea does not find himself in the current political offer. “No candidate has, in my opinion, demonstrated sufficient lucidity and commitment on the subjects that are close to my heart. I haven’t made my choice, and I don’t know if I will. I will cling to the idea of being able to act on my scale”he regrets.
Health, research and education
In the era of the queen punchline, the 30-year-old appears out of step. “I don’t appreciate communication in politics at all, it’s the reduction of the subject that deprives the audience of reflection. Ideas that make sense need to be developed. Trying to boil them down to slogans is either naïve or misleading.”
It declines its ideal program into three themes for three temporalities: a health policy for the short term, a research policy for the medium term and an education policy for the long term. And the same method on each of the subjects: assemblies and regular and massive consultations led by civil society.
A prism that leans clearly to the left. We are not very far from the RIC dear to yellow vests… In fact, the far right is on the wrong track for those who call themselves “biologist and humanist citizen”. “I teach population genetics, it is illusory to believe that we can stop mixing between peoples”, he asks. The university is never very far from the citizen. He does not support “selective summoning of historical and biological disciplines into politics, as during debates on abortion, PMA and marriage for all”.
War in Ukraine, baccalaureate reform and McKinsey
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has discredited part of the political class. Mircea Sofonea, born in Romania, maintains very strong ties with his country of origin, where he goes every year and regrets the “opportunistic interests” What do French elected representatives bring to Eastern Europe: “The self-serving confidence or mitigating circumstances given to Putin by some is a largely unfavorable argument in my eyes” for the first round.
After growing up in Perpignan, a preparation in Paris and the Ecole Normale Supérieure, the teacher-researcher embodies this France attached to the notion of public service. The McKinsey affair hurt him. “When you see the trust placed in consulting firms, what contempt for public research. Especially when we know that these firms sent us messages to improve their models on the epidemic because they had taken over ours! Another point of disagreement, the fate reserved for scientific subjects in the reform of the baccalaureate, even if the government has announced that it wants to go back on the subject. “We refuse to admit that mathematics, like biology, is part of a common culture”regrets the scientist.
On the political side, Mircea Sofonea nevertheless ventures to wish for a reform of the voting system authorizing the distributed vote (where each voter expresses himself on each candidate) and taking into account the blank vote: “This shift would restore confidence in French politics to people who have lost it a little, like me.” We take the bet that it will not be heard.