A Battle for History: When Right and Left Clash on Stage

Panic has gripped left-wing intellectuals and the press in response to what they see as an offensive by the conservative Right to ‘impose’ (because it is understood that the Right cannot ‘propose’ but only ‘impose’) an alternative historical narrative on the French people, using the weapons of entertainment and historical spectacle.

The main culprit—which has been deemed so for many years—is Puy du Fou, the theme park and night show launched by the sovereigntist Philippe de Villiers in the Vendée region almost fifty years ago. Today, the park and the cinéscénie (a large-scale historical re-enactment) in the heart of the Vendée countryside have become a global success, attracting nearly three million visitors each year and winning a host of international awards for its attractions and shows, allowing it to boast the distinction of being the “world’s leading theme park.”

Philippe de Villiers has always had poor luck in politics and has never really managed to make his mark on French political life, achieving only limited success among conservative voters. However, he is a successful entrepreneur who has developed extremely high-quality and ambitious projects that are now recognised for their value well beyond the small circle of his supporters.

Since Villiers paved the way, Puy du Fou has spread abroad and inspired many imitators in France. Every town, every castle, every church is now thinking of offering visitors its own sound and light show and costumed attractions to bring back to life a past when France was proud of itself and shone brightly on the world stage thanks to the excellence of its culture, without wallowing in the darkness of repentance.

This trend is giving journalists and left-wing politicians cold sweats: what if, through its good-natured shows, the Right wing is trying to break the republican consensus and offer a different vision of history? Because the history that is being staged in villages is not politically correct. It gives pride of place to the Ancien Régime and, more broadly, to the thousand years during which kings ruled France. It highlights heroic figures, whether saints or knights. It does not consider the French Revolution to be the pinnacle of national history, nor does it consider anything that came before it to be forgotten. Simplistic and anachronistic elements are, of course, present. So what? What disturbs the detractors of these shows the most is the obvious fact that in these productions, the ‘values of the Republic’ do not sell. That is where the danger lies.

The culture war is not a fantasy. It is a crucial reality, and it is worth fighting. “The political battle is now being fought on the aesthetic front,” we read in the press, and that is a good thing. Yes, it is high time for the conservative Right to consider that culture and history are not a byproduct of political struggle but the very heart of the nuclear reactor, where love for one’s country and the desire to see it endure are forged. This requires dreams, not ideology. There is therefore no reason to take offence at the concerns of the Left: in a way, they are justified.

The scandal lies elsewhere: it comes from the fact that an intellectual and media caste is outraged by the Right’s response, even though this same caste has dominated the entire French cultural scene for decades. The Right is giving nothing but a response. Decades, not to say centuries. Under the Third Republic, the Left made it its priority to conquer education in order to forge national unity against the monarchy and the Church by telling stories. The mechanism is well-known: the Left is an expert in this field. What displeases the petty and mediocre heirs of Jules Ferry and Léon Gambetta, soldiers of this offensive of the 1880s and 1890s, is that some imagine questioning the univocal official discourse that they have stamped as the only authorised truth.

The picture painted by the newspaper Le Monde—which, from a newspaper of record for the French elites, has turned into a Pravda of left-wing thought—of the vogue for historical shows is very telling: through historical shows, “reactionaries perpetuate the national myth and the cult of France as the ‘eldest daughter of the Church,’ carried by its crowned heads and saints,” explains this very serious press organ. That is the crime: talking about the France of the past that inspires dreams. They are not interested in the fact that this France once existed: the most important thing is that its existence must not be brought back to the brainwashed French of 2025. 

Thomas Jolly, designer of the controversial opening ceremony for the 2024 Olympic Games, is one of the most ardent critics of “right-wing historical spectacle.” He aims to stage a grand national spectacle in 2027 in the most beautiful of the Loire châteaux, Chambord, which will be “neither militaristic nor nationalistic.” He plans to team up with a certain Mohamed El Khatib, who says he refuses to “remain passive in the face of this attempt at cultural hegemony.” It is hard to believe when you consider the largesse Thomas Jolly enjoyed for his opening ceremony, which was entirely funded by public money to the tune of €100 million. The ideological discourse defended by Thomas Jolly is the very same one that enjoys absolute cultural hegemony thanks to state subsidies. Initiatives such as Puy du Fou, on the other hand, do not cost French taxpayers a penny.

One can seriously doubt Jolly’s ability to attract crowds to hear, in François I’s home, speak about obscurantist kings and the triumph of modernity and republican vivre-ensemble. But it doesn’t matter, Nicolas is paying!