"An Intimate Ambition" on M6: from Bardella to Roussel, via Darmanin and Sandrine Rousseau, very smooth portraits for a peopleization of politics

Every family writes its own novel. By turns tender and joyful, sad or conquering. Karine Le Marchand loves this type of story. She believes that showing the private man or woman in politics in their intimacy allows us to better understand the political animal.

In 2022, she sparked heated debates with the four episodes of her show "Une ambition intime," in which Marine Le Pen discussed her love of cats, which says nothing about her exclusionary agenda. She also regretted not having been allowed to read Pif Gadget as a child. Perhaps that would have changed her view of the world?

The show returns today, with a shorter format, since it is a single episode of approximately 1 hour 40 minutes, of which a 1 hour 10 minute montage was shown to the press. In the order of appearance of this extract, the speakers are the former Minister of the Interior, now Minister of Justice, Gérald Darmanin , the Green MP for Paris Sandrine Rousseau , the number 1 of the RN, Jordan Bardella , and Fabien Roussel , the national secretary of the French Communist Party.

The footage shown to journalists followed each of the characters over time, from birth to the present day, with testimonies from loved ones. There's no guarantee that these same testimonies will be edited in the same way on Sunday.

Do we learn much in this new show? Yes and no. Gérald Darmanin recounts his family history, revisited and revisited: his immigrant grandfathers, his "single-mother" grandmothers, poverty. His childhood in a small concierge's lodge in Paris, the difficulties of raising his own children at the Ministry of the Interior.

Jordan Bardella discusses his desire to become a police officer at 15, his ^9th -grade internship at the Saint-Denis police station (Seine-Saint-Denis), where he lived at the time, and his discovery of the National Front (FN) through a school assignment. He is atrociously obsessive, even his mother, seen from behind, and Marine Le Pen agree.

Sandrine Rousseau, for her part, recounts a childhood hindered by terrible medical reasons, and how at the age of 10 she stood up to doctors: she lived better afterward, and this shaped the woman she is today. We see her, generous, preparing meals for large tables.

Fabien Roussel, in the same vein, is moving when he talks about his journey as a single father, with his twins, then with the third child, Émile, in joint custody, before meeting his current partner, Dorothée. His children, but also his father, Daniel, and Michelle Demessine, for whom he worked during the plural left government in 1997, complement his words. Above all, his daughter, Nina, who was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 8, is heartbreaking when she talks about the "bubble" that her father built, alone, to protect her from anxiety.

And politics in all this? It surfaces. It almost breaks in among those on the right and far right. It is much more openly expressed by Sandrine Rousseau and Fabien Roussel. Through gritted teeth, Darmanin thus acknowledges that he made a mistake in voting against same-sex marriage in 2013. Bardella recounts his meteoric rise within the National Rally, under the high patronage of Marine Le Pen. Does he concede that he sacrifices too much of his time to the Le Pens' party, given his long teeth?

On the left, convictions are deeply rooted. Sandrine Rousseau, who grew up near the sea, had a keen ecological awareness at a very early age, her father and brother say. The same goes for feminism. After becoming university president, her social conscience pushed her to take emergency, almost survival-related measures for students. Sensitive to the plight of exiles, she welcomed one of them into her home until he was given papers and a job.

The same goes for Fabien Roussel, whose sense of the common good is constantly evident, whether he's going to a meeting at the local café, talking about Maroilles cheese or rebuilding "happy days," which he refuses to give up. He explains that, as a journalist and photojournalist, he learned the "meaning of the punchline," but also, later, at the ministry, that "a good speech is delivered looking people in the eye."

The fact remains that these portraits are very smooth, without any rough edges. We judge a politician by their actions, their achievements, their political project. Seeing Darmanin recount his life in 23 square meters and his love for firefighters, gendarmes, and the police doesn't erase police violence.

This celebrityization risks, above all, giving an almost human face to those who preach exclusion, withdrawal, and authority. It's a way of empathizing with characters who have none for the rest of humanity.

An intimate ambition , Sunday, M6, Sunday June 1 at 9:10 p.m.