2023-09-03 06:00:32
The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, during his political return to Tourcoing (North), August 27, 2023. MICHAEL ZUMSTEIN / AGENCY SEEN FOR “THE WORLD”
In search of the lost electorate. Four years from the next presidential election, ambitions are already unveiling, appetites are sharpening and an electoral target stands out in this political return: the working classes. Here they are erected by the Socialist Party (PS) as the central theme of its summer school in Blois. Here they are at the heart of the offensive, in Tourcoing (North), of the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, determined to stand out in the race towards the presidential election of 2027. The “rebellious” deputy for the Somme, François Ruffin, who has been trying for months to win them back, has, for his part, sharply criticized Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s strategy, deemed too radical to “convince in Moselle, in Picardy, everywhere in the country”.
“Everyone on the political spectrum talks about the working classes, because they represent a golden age, a kind of paradise lostanalyzes Frédéric Dabi, managing director of the IFOP. And, given the fracturing of the political landscape into three blocks [entre Marine Le Pen, Emmanuel Macron et Jean-Luc Mélenchon]it will be important to have the popular classes to win in 2027. » However, he recalls, “the first behavior of workers is abstention”. In the first round of the 2022 presidential election, one in three workers (33%) shunned the ballot box, compared to 26% of executives and 27% of intermediate professions and employees. “But when they vote, it is of course the National Rally [RN] who benefits the most », adds the sounder. In the second round, Marine Le Pen was well ahead of Emmanuel Macron among workers (67%) and employees (57%).
The shift in the electorate of the National Front (FN) dates back to the 1980s. The extreme right then gradually became the first party of workers, then of employees – an observation, once again, to be qualified by the extent of the non- – registration and abstention in these socio-professional categories. The RN remains very much in the minority among the working classes of the suburbs and urban areas, who invariably vote in favor of the left. “Initially, the workers’ vote in favor of the FN did not result from a strategy, underlines Jérôme Sainte-Marie, former pollster, now provider of the Lepenist party. But a relationship of electoral dependence has been created. Today, that sets the agenda. »
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In a second Macron five-year term still marked by the disenchantment of the working classes, Gérald Darmanin plays the “social right” card to the fullest to assert his difference. In the botanical garden of Tourcoing, where he gathered his supporters on August 27, the former mayor of the city, minister of Emmanuel Macron since 2017, did not skimp on the symbols “popular”. His guests were offered a unique menu, beer-sausages-chips – which we “eat with your fingers”. He trained them – the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, was no exception – to the “bourloire”where people have practiced since the Middle Ages “burle”precision game with asymmetrical balls that is transmitted from father to son. “Gérald spoke, he even climbed on the counter”, could testify the Secretary of State in charge of the city, Sabrina Agresti-Roubache, in front of the journalists. Above the famous counter, a sign specified “No pennies, no gurgling”a warning that brightened the afternoon of the advisers to the President of the Republic present in Tourcoing.
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