Understanding a French presidential election has become more difficult since 2017, when the choice of Emmanuel Macron broke the logic of a second round invariably decided in the confrontation of a socialist with a candidate more to the right.
Macron represents something very close to centrist populism. Now 44 years old, he is the favorite to be re-elected in the election that will have its first round this Sunday (10th). But the fact that France is no longer polarized makes it more difficult to paint a political portrait of him.
Because the task was very well performed by the documentary “Democracy – The French Enigma”, by GloboNews. The responsible team did not fall into the trap of interviewing a succession of experts who would wander from essay to journalism and give at most a kaleidoscope of opinions.
Bertrand Badie was the only political scientist interviewed. And he was simple and direct, stating, for example, that France today has fewer intellectual debates, and that, therefore, political freedom is not so exercised. The floor was left to the voters themselves, who sometimes simplistically explained the reasons that led them to choose a particular candidate.
For example. In the port city of Marseille, in the south of France, a Muslim and single mother talks about her difficulties, clashes with racism and the reputation of a terrorist that affects this part of the community to which she belongs – between 7 million and 9 million are Muslims. of the 63 million French people.
She will vote for Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a 71-year-old left-wing deputy and leader of the France Insubmissive movement. The Marseille voter says he aims to unify the French, rather than dividing them according to religion or ethnic origin.
Curious detail: Mélenchon, in third place in the polls, is the only moderately viable competitor among the six that the left presented. Without any viability are the candidates of the Socialist Party (the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo) and the tiny Communist Party (Fabien Roussel), which in the post-war period reached a third of the electorate and is now a mere extra in the presidential game.
In a village in the north of France, GloboNews interviewed an old unemployed worker —the weaving mill where he worked closed—turned into a gardener for the town hall and, on weekends, an agitator of the conservative yellow vest movement. The citizen is a voter for Marine Le Pen, from the far-right Reunion National party.
Le Pen has a platform based on xenophobia and intends, if elected, to convene a referendum on the legal meaning of French nationality — which is a way of excluding Arab and sub-Saharan African immigrants from social security benefits.
The far right has another candidate, Eric Zemmour, whose party is called Reconquista. It is the word used 600 years ago by the Spaniards to designate the expulsion of Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula. The current interviewee was a law student from Paris, a voter for whom Christian culture in France is in danger of becoming a minority.
The presidential candidate of the traditional right, whose party is a distant descendant of the one founded by General Charles de Gaulle, is called Valérie Pécresse, whose majority of the electoral base is among the over 60s and who brings, in her program, the anxieties of the third age. The voter interviewed is a small caricature of a woman a little beyond middle age, who carries the criteria of admiration similar to that of the young rock audience. She “loves” Valérie and proudly shows the candidate’s photograph, alongside her handsome businessman husband.
Two other characters complete the list of interviewees in the documentary.
There is the rap singer from a Parisian suburb, part of the agnostics of partisan politics. He has a very clear awareness of the human and urban problems that his region faces, but he does not translate this revolt by any ideology or by one of the candidates.
And finally, an immigrant who fled the Ivory Coast civil war 15 years ago and is now a security guard at a shopping mall near Paris. He obtained French citizenship a few months ago: he was one of 1,500 foreigners that the government awarded for performance during the pandemic.
The former Ivorian and now Frenchman does not fully reveal who he will vote for. But he clearly implies that he unconditionally supports – from the defense of the battered woman to the war in Ukraine – President Emmanuel Macron.
