One more candidate in the race for the Elysée. The philosopher Gaspard Koenig announced this Tuesday, January 11, his decision to take part in the presidential election in April 2022. Who is he?
Liberal philosopher
Aged 39, Gaspard Koenig is a philosopher, also the author of several books. With a liberal ideology (in all its forms), he created the GénérationLibre think tank in 2013, then the LIBRE political movement in 2021.
Opponent of the “bureaucratic prison”
The main ambition of the philosopher is to “give back freedom, responsibility, autonomy” to people. He thus poses as an opponent of the “bureaucratic prison” which blocks France, wishing to “simplify” life, by dividing in particular “by 100 the number of standards”.
“People are suffering from administrative paperwork problems. These are often tragi-dramatic things that prevent them from living their life, from doing their job, ”he pointed out. According to him, no other candidate militates for this “simplification” of the bureaucracy.
A centrist who voted Macron in 2017
The philosopher indicated to recognize himself “in this great political space of the center”. He explained that he voted for Emmanuel Macron in 2017, but admitted to regret his choice since, according to him, the president “took an extremely authoritarian attitude”. “He ruled from above, he re-centralized,” he said.
The country on horseback
For five months, between the two confinements of 2020, Gaspard Koenig crossed France for 2,500 kilometers with his horse. The goal was to complete the same route as Montaigne, in 1580, who had reached Rome from Bordeaux. He went through Limousin, Champagne and Alsace in particular, before heading down to Italy.
It was during this trip, during which he claims to have been accommodated “every night or almost at a inhabitant’s”, that he explains having precisely perceived the difficulties encountered by the French in the face of standards and bureaucratic paperwork.