The journalists dissected the latest campaign accounts available, those of the 2019 European elections. They were interested in candidates who obtained more than 3% of the vote – the threshold which, for this election, gave them the right to reimbursement by the Statement of their main expenses.
Several weeks were needed to sift through thousands of documents: slips, contracts, quotes, invoices, the amounts of which can reach several hundred thousand euros… In total, to target citizens, there are 2.7 million euros that have been spent by seven parties.
When LR targets hunters, LREM prefers fishermen
La France insoumise had for example chosen to address by voice message or SMS to almost 16 million households. For services including the sending of messages (up to five per household) in 30,000 municipalities, the bill amounted to 800,000 euros. Or 15% of the LFI campaign budget.
The Republicans, they would have spent more than 900,000 euros, or 20% of their total envelope. And this to target their potential voters according to very specific criteria. The party which put François-Xavier Bellamy at the top of the list preferably targeted French people living abroad, the over 65s and … hunters – when Nathalie Loiseau, of La République en Marche, preferred fishermen.
Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, he focused on certain trades, as shown by the details of the e-mailing campaign of his party, Debout la France. Nearly six million emails were sent to lawyers, farmers, construction professionals, real estate agents, nurses… at a cost of 48,000 euros. That is ten times less than the 539,000 euros committed to canvassing the over 65s “in the old fashioned way”, by post. In all, these targeted mailings represented 18% of its European budget.
Excerpt from “Big data: when politicians target us!”, a document to be seen in “Complementary investigation” on April 14, 2022.
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