French young conservatives (jeunes populaires) produced and posted on their site a video that showcases their late-summer congress, with leading figures from the Sarkozy government in attendance.

I like the video. It answers the question: how can you be young and conservative without being complacent? It’s also sufficiently unpolished to be the work of real young people, not an advertising agency.

To begin with, the young don’t call themselves “conservative”; they’re “popular”, in keeping with Sarkozy’s big-tent vision of the conservative party as the leading party and the party of good government.

The young conservatives also look to the future, reprising a 1976 song by Canadian artist Luc Plamondon, “Tous ceux qui veulent changer le monde” (Everyone who wants to change the world). They’re young and fresh and hopeful; they want change.

Most of all, the young conservatives have a sense of humor. They’re a bit silly, and their friends in the Sarkozy government are comfortable being a little silly themselves. These young people get along with their elders, who actually seem to enjoy their company. The ambiance recalls, for me, a big family get-together or a church picnic (but not a company picnic: these people are confident and comfortable enough not to take themselves too seriously).

The video has sparked reactions.

Those on the left, for whom “young conservatives” are an oxymoron or heresy, have enjoyed a laugh and produced parody videos. By a casual count, there seem to be at least a hundred, possibly several hundred, parodies.

Some of those on the right are scandalized, put off by a lack of seriousness or an overabundance of fooling-around. The standard-bearer of the scandalized conservatives is former education minister Luc Ferry, who in an interview –apparently after seeing excerpts of the video for the first time– described the video as “dripping with drivel” and wondered aloud about the dangers it presented for the future of civilization.