For six months, there’s a question that I’ve been meaning to get to the bottom of. Nothing about the bike race which is taking place, you understand. This is bigger than mere sport: it is about institutional trust, electoral integrity, the very nature of democracy itself.
In February on the other side of the world, I interviewed the French climber Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet of Groupama-FDJ United. He’s an interesting guy: the author of three books, a philosopher, a man that has a rich and full life outside of cycling. But as I learned then, there’s one aspect of his life that is particularly quirky. On his family farm, there is a donkey government.
Iain Treloar
The most recent parliament was elected on January 4, 2024, with the broader Martin-Guyonnet family putting forward the representatives that would rule Domaine de la Boderie for the coming year. The donkey Bibi succeeded Ninon for the presidency, winning over the voters with his “experience and sobriety” and taking power for a one year term. But herein lies the problem: that was two and a half years ago.
Earlier this year, Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet was adamant that the donkey government was “not a dictatorship” and “still a democracy”. But authoritarianism often comes after a steady erosion of democratic rights: you might not even realise the risk until it’s too late. I wanted to know whether such principles still held firm on the family farm in Suisse Normande. I hoped for the best, and I feared for the worst.
In the stage start on Wednesday in Vichy – fittingly, the capital of the authoritarian French state that collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II – I tracked down Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet to ask some Very Important Questions. I think you will agree that they reveal some disquieting truths.
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