NarrativeThey are under 30, grew up in Ille-et-Vilaine, in the Somme or in the Aude. By presenting themselves to the legislative elections, they intend in particular to represent a youth, according to them, invisible: those who live far from the big cities.
Background trend, the high abstention of young people was again confirmed in the presidential election – in the first round, 41% of 18-24 year olds shunned the ballot box, against 22% to 27% in the other age categories, according to the FIFG. It could be accentuated in the legislative elections, which are less mobilizing.
Among these young abstentionists, some suffer from a significant lack of representation: those from rural areas, especially if they come from working-class backgrounds. It is in the rural communes that the vote for the National Rally (RN) recorded, moreover, its strongest progression.
The invisibility of these young people partly explains why they shun the ballot box, according to sociologist Benoît Coquard, who works on this category of population. “They do not feel present in the debates through a candidacy, whether in substance, in terms of concerns, but also in form, by someone who looks like them – tastes, values, manners to talk to – and who they might relate to. »
It is, among other reasons, to respond to this lack of representativeness and hope to rejuvenate the benches of the National Assembly (average age of 48 years and 8 months, in 2017) that some of them are running for legislative elections. . As M. Coquard notes, “the embodiment of rurality can also be strategic for parties. It remains to be seen whether their usual social selection will not leave aside the majority categories of rural youth: workers and employees. » Four young candidates who grew up far from the big cities explain their commitment.
“I want to carry the voice of the rural youth I know”: Albane Branlant, 25, Together!-La République en Marche, 3e Somme constituency
Help to finance the permit, legalization of cannabis… A few months ago, Albane Branlant was working with the Young People with Macron – of which she is a national adviser – to the development of proposals for young people during the presidential election. Candidate for deputy, the one who grew up between Beauchamps and Méneslies – daughter of a pharmacist and an ex-hairdresser – knocks on doors, in a blazer and Converse, with a claim: “To carry the voice of the rural youth that I know, to make their problems heard and to value them. »
This “walker” is running in a rural constituency that voted for the RN vote in the second round of the presidential election. She says she listens and understands anger. Before leaving to study law in Lille and political science in Paris, she experienced the feeling of isolation, the distance from public services and doctors, the train station or the local mission thirty minutes away, the bus stop fifteen, and the bike that’s not an option. But also the pride, she says, of counting on “clubs, associations, elected officials and companies involved”.
You have 75.68% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.