With the column “Generation 2022”, franceinfo gave the floor, every day, to 18-30 year olds to collect their concerns, their expectations and to question their relationship to politics until the presidential election. If it is impossible to speak of “youth” or even “young people”, because it is a population far from being homogeneous, here is in broad outline what we can retain from these eight months of fieldwork.
A campaign out of step with their concerns
We met young critics of the current political system. Young people who are disillusioned, even disenchanted with politics, at least with what is done in the traditional parties. However, they are not uninterested in public affairs and even less in their future which worries them a lot.
“Ecology is often at the end of the program or just to look pretty.”
Matthew, 20 years old
Many young people found that the subjects that matter to them had not been present enough in the debates or in the candidates’ programmes. For example ecology or the fight against discrimination.
“I found the campaign to be out of step with my commitments.”
A large number of the young people met finally had the feeling that this campaign had passed without them and that there was a gap between the concerns of politicians and their own. According to an Ipsos survey published in February, more than one in two young people felt that their concerns had not been taken into account in the debates of the electoral campaign.
The campaign played out a lot on social networks. In principle, young people welcome the effort but many have deplored the lack of substance in the content. Some even felt disrespected and not taken seriously.
Young people no longer recognize themselves in parties…
Over the course of these meetings, we felt a real lack of confidence in the political class, even if political mistrust does not only concern young people. There is this catchphrase that often came back from “all the same”“nothing will change”“we are promised things that we are not doing..
“Politicians talk a lot but don’t do much.”
Jordan, 18 years oldat franceinfo
Among the young people we met, many do not or no longer recognize themselves in the traditional parties. We talk about political disaffiliation, that is to say that we vote less and less out of loyalty to a party and moreover it is difficult to define ourselves politically.
What can also be noted is a real demand for renewal from the political class. Of the 12 candidates running for the first round, seven were already present in the 2017 ballot.
… but some commit anyway
We also met young people who believe in the current political system, in traditional parties, who are convinced that politics can improve people’s lives, and who believe that action also takes place at the ballot box.
Some even try to change the rules of the political game from within, by campaigning in parties through youth movements.
“It’s up to us to make things change. We are able to bring out new ideas.”
Guilhem Carayon (LR), 22 years oldat franceinfo
We met very committed young people, who give their time to associations, collectives or who decide to take over social networks to defend a cause; young people who finally do politics on a daily basis and in their own way. Sometimes this commitment goes with the vote, sometimes not.
Many feel forgotten and do not vote
We have come across a lot of young people who are very distant from politics or even completely disconnected, young people who are not informed or who are poorly informed, young people who feel excluded and forgotten, who expect nothing from politics and who do not not vote.
“Politics doesn’t interest me. I don’t even have a voter’s card.”
Jordan, 25 years oldat franceinfo
These young people, it is in rural areas and in popular neighborhoods, where the feeling of downgrading is very strong, that we met them. Politics is perceived as a world far removed from theirs. “That World”, “These people” are expressions that come up often.
“We the proles, the children of immigrants, we do not feel represented and we are not listened to.”
Lansky, 23 years old
This gap between popular circles and politics is the most striking feeling of these multiple meetings, for months. First as journalists, because we tell ourselves that the information we produce every day does not reach everyone. And then as citizens, because if the young people of the working classes vote less and less, that raises a democratic question.
What we remember from this presidential election is also the abstention since the 18-24 year olds are those who voted the least this year. 42% did not move in the first round and 41% in the second. It’s a lot and above all it’s a figure that increases with each election. The next election to watch will be the legislative elections on June 12 and 19. In 2017, 64% of people under 35 had not voted.