Pascal Perrineau, political scientist and university professor at Sciences Po was the guest of “8:30 am franceinfo”, Sunday 5 December. He was answering questions from Ersin Leibowitch and Jean-Jérôme Bertolus.
Valérie Pécresse, “embarrassing for Emmanuel Macron”
Valérie Pécresse was appointed, Saturday, December 4, the Republican candidate for the 2022 presidential election with 60.95% of the vote against Eric Ciotti. The right must now “to win back the voters who, on the one hand, went to Emmanuel Macron, rather on themes of economic credibility and reforms that the right could have done and that it had not done, and then those who left on the side by Eric Zemmour, and to a lesser extent by Marine Le Pen “, Pascal Perrineau analysis.
“So you have to hold both ends of the chain, continues the political scientist. However, on the first objective, it has the economic and managerial credibility to possibly send messages that will be heard by these voters. And then, we saw her during the campaign, she its right-handed and eIt now has, on the classic sovereign grounds – immigration, insecurity – firm and very firm measures, even if it does not go to the measures put forward by its challenger Eric Ciotti. So she can hold both ends of the chain “, he explains.
Valérie Pécresse is also “more embarrassing for the president than the other candidates, according to Pascal Perrineau. Because it is difficult for the candidate Macron, who plays a lot on the theme of the first of the class, the brilliant president, the overhanging president, there he is dealing with someone who has graduated from the same schools as him, who is at the head of one of the biggest, if not the biggest region in Europe demographically and which, even its opponents say, has not failed at the head of this region. There, it’s heavy. “
Presidential, the candidates’ best opponent is “themselves”
“The best political opponent of politicians is themselves”, explains the political scientist. In the polls of voting intentions, Valérie Pécresse is neck and neck with Eric Zemmour. The polemicist “which soared towards 18%, discovers the principle of reality and falls back to around 13%. For him, the last two weeks have been difficult”, estimates Pascal Perrineau. According to the political scientist, the electorate of Eric Zemmour, “ultra conservative, rather old”, will run out of agitation caused by the far-right candidate.
Same problem on the side of Jean-Luc Mélenchon: “His excesses were seen as excesses”, which prevents it from regaining its popularity in 2017, analyzes Pascal Perineau. On its program, “A whole share of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s economic and social proposals are in tune with the times. But that is not enough. We must also credibly embody this zeitgeist”, he continues.
The French will not vote “if we do not go looking for them”
For the presidential election, “the French will not go to the polls if we do not go and look for them”, warns Pascal Perrineau. The researcher believes that applicants should now “give the French good reasons to return to the public space”, at a time of the fifth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and the health crisis, which are at the forefront of their concerns.
“The phenomenal abstention rates that we recorded in local elections, it’s not just fear, it’s the distancing from a political world that seems to the French more and more distant”, notes Pascal Perrineau, who regrets that the vote seems to become “the expression of sad passions”.
Find the entire “8h30 franceinfo” of Sunday, December 5, 2021: