Is the political “new world” so different from the old?

Interviewed on the set of 23 hours for his new book The candidates, which deals with professionals and novices in politics, the sociologist at the CNRS Étienne Ollion spoke in particular about the case of the presidential candidate Éric Zemmour, who in his eyes belongs to the rank of novices. “He didn’t have a warrant. he did not have a very militant commitment developed before. On the other hand, it is certain that he has a real experience of political circles, he has gravitated around political leaders as a political journalist at Le Figaro. He is in an intermediate category,” he explained.

Taking the example of the many neophytes arriving at the National Assembly under the label La Dpublic running in 2017, Etienne Ollion recognize “a real desire for transformation“, but find that they “failed to prevail. They lacked experience, network. They found themselves confronted with more experienced colleagues or elected representatives of the opposition who, very quickly, knew how to pull the chestnuts out of the fire because they knew the codes, and knew how to impose themselves“.