the “Parliament” series campaigns for the European elections

Producer Fabienne Servan-Schreiber reveals behind the scenes of the video clips filmed with fictional actors to encourage young people to go to the polls.

Fabienne Servan-Schreiber is the president of Cinétévé, an independent audiovisual production company, founded in 1982. Her portfolio includes the production of documentaries, feature films, short programs and even fiction such as the series Parliament. In an offbeat and humorous tone, since 2020 and its three seasons, Parliament explains the role of European institutions. It has already attracted nearly seven million young viewers on the France TV Slash platform and has also been sold in more than ten countries, even outside the European Union, such as the United States and Malaysia.

>> VIDEO – Samy, the hero of the Parliament series, calls to vote for the European elections – France Bleu

Building on this success and made up of a team of “Fanatical Europeans“, it was very natural that the production, the authors and the actors responded to a somewhat special call, as the producer explains. It all started with an email from the Jean Monnet Foundation, which works for the European unification and whose members love the series. Its president, Jean-Marc Lieberherr, requested production in order to be able to use rushes.to make clips since we are entering the election period?“.”I thought it was a great idea, giving rushes was too complicated, so I asked my teams if they were ready to write little original clips and they said ‘Yes’ right away“, she says.

“We wanted to attract the attention of young people”

For several days, the first two clips which have been visible on social networks, France Télévisions, TV5 Monde, France 24 and even LCP. Soon also broadcast in Germany and Belgium, these short humorous clips encourage citizens to vote in the European elections. In one of these videos, we are in the hemicycle and we witness an exchange between Samy, the parliamentary assistant, and Michel, the idiot president of the European Parliament who declares that he will not go to vote because it He stopped doing it a long time ago. In response, Samy explains to him that it’s like riding a bicycle and that if he doesn’t have his voter card, he can vote with his identity card or that if he is not registered on the lists elections, he can do it over the Internet.

A direct pedagogy, but also “another way of speaking to young people“than a political speech would do, according to Fabienne Servan-Schreiber.”Making people laugh about politics, I think it refreshes people’s minds. We wanted to attract the attention of young people who perhaps do not listen to highly constructed personalities and speeches. That’s the bet“.

While waiting for the vote on June 9, the filming of the fourth season of Parliament, in which we discover the European Council, ends. The producer announces that it will be the last since France Télévisions did not wish to continue, but on the other hand, “a door has been opened for a new series around Europe with the same authors“, she confides.