Much has been said about the influence of the pandemic on the morale, and even on the mental health of the French, who suffer from all the problems, and all the anxieties that it imposes on them. However, the presidential election will take place soon.
franceinfo: Can the particular state in which the French currently find themselves have an influence on their attitude towards this vote?
Claude Halmos: The conjunction of the pandemic and this election places the French in a difficult situation because it confronts them, on the psychological level, with contradictory requirements.
An election, especially as important as a presidential election, implies, in order to make a choice, to project oneself into the future. However, the idea of the future was very present at the start of the pandemic: quickly imagining it better certainly allowed us, during the first confinement, to hold on.
But since, and especially since the arrival of Omicron, it has become so uncertain that many people avoid thinking about it. Voting also means relying on values in which we believe. However, the Covid has led to a great upheaval at this level. Essential values (medicine, science) have been called into question (in a minority but nevertheless very noisy way).
But above all, the proximity of death, with which the Covid has confronted us, has changed the relationship to life of many French people. Many now want to live differently, and better; they are in search. And when everything is moving this way, making societal choices is not easy.
Have expectations of a president changed?
A President is a kind of tutelary, parental figure, who is expected to be able to direct, reassure, protect. However, here again, the pandemic is clouding the cards, because the disarray of the French and their feeling of fragility are such that they increase tenfold – at least unconsciously – their expectations, and make it difficult for them to believe a candidate capable of meeting them. And that may lead to a feeling of “what’s the point?” which would be dangerous on all counts.
What would be the dangers?
Generalized doubt can aggravate disinterest in the election, and therefore abstention. This would be serious for democracy, but also for the psychological health of the French.
Holding on, psychologically, in a situation as trying as a pandemic, means driving out of your head the “what’s the point?”, pessimism, nostalgia, which make you lose your strength; and to seize what remains possible, to try to live it at best.
And, from this point of view, the actions in which we can participate, in society, are points of support because they keep us in the idea of a beyond the pandemic, of a life that keep on going.
And we prove to ourselves that we retain the power to act on things. To invest, despite the Covid in these elections, and to vote is, in a way, to bet on life. And it is, psychologically, a winning bet.