when politicians accommodate their social origins

“I am a mountain farmer,” Prime Minister Michel Barnier said on Wednesday during a trip to Reims. A small accommodation with reality that recalls a fairly widespread practice in politics.

These were a few words said in passing to journalists that made Frédéric Sawicki, professor of political science at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, react on X. On a trip to the Marne on Wednesday 11 September, Michel Barnier called on the press to be a little patient before the formation of a new government. “next week”The Prime Minister added these few words: “Don’t be impatient. I’m a mountain farmer, one step at a time.”

🔴 The Prime Minister will appoint a new government “next week.”
🗣️ “Don’t be impatient… I am a farmer, a mountain dweller, one step at a time,” explains Michel Barnier, present at the parliamentary days of the Horizons party, in Reims. pic.twitter.com/2WXQa45mA5

— LCI (@LCI) September 11, 2024

“Barnier the peasant!”exclaims the researcher from the European Centre for Sociology and Political Science. He recalls the Prime Minister’s CV and believes that by having been given a mission in the ministerial cabinet at the age of 21, the Prime Minister had “started to plow politics early”.

A mountaineer, let’s admit, because it’s true that Michel Barnier was born in Isère and grew up in Savoie. But he’s not a farmer as such, neither is he, nor are his parents. His father managed a small leather business and his mother was an activist in several associations, particularly on road safety. Frédéric Thébault, the editorial manager of the Geneanet website, has nevertheless found farmers among the more distant ancestors of the head of the future government, in the 19th century. But once again, Michel Barnier is not a farmer, unlike the former MP Jean Lassalle, for example, who comes from a family of Béarnese shepherds. The family farm is now managed by his brother.

Some will think that this is indeed just a small arrangement with reality, and they will be right. All the more so since Michel Barnier has indeed made a social ascent, initiated very early by his schooling in a prestigious Lyon high school, and motivated by his passion for politics in which he became involved since adolescence.

However, this little arrangement recalls the fairly widespread practice in the political world which consists of playing a little on one’s social origins and giving oneself an air of more modesty than one really is. Adrien Naselli, journalist at Release and author of the book And your parents, what do they do?believes that there are two ways to do this: either by talking about one’s grandparents, forgetting to specify that it was one’s parents who made the social advancement and not oneself, or by talking about one’s geographical origins.

Thus, Édouard Philippe, the Horizons mayor of Le Havre, often presents himself as the grandson of a docker, without specifying that his father was the director of a high school in Germany, where the former Prime Minister and candidate for the 2027 presidential election was also educated. President Emmanuel Macron also does this when he talks about his grandmother being a schoolteacher, without mentioning that his parents are doctors. He also does not say that his grandmother was not only a schoolteacher but also a school principal, which, at the time, was a rather high status for a woman. In another genre, we can think of former President Nicolas Sarkozy who truncated his full surname, Sarkozy de Nagy-Bocsa, removing its particle and thereby erasing its signs of Hungarian nobility.

We find the same process, with a whole narrative on geographical origins, for political figures from or living elsewhere than in Paris. They use their origins to distinguish themselves from the Parisian elite, without recalling that they are still part of a local elite. Emmanuel Macron does this when he describes himself as a “provincial”. François Ruffin, the former rebellious MP, also does it when he repeats over and over that he is just “Picard”without specifying that his father was an executive at Bonduelle.

The practice is not always conscious and not necessarily malicious. We can sincerely feel that we come from a more modest class when our grandparents were, or when we grew up somewhere other than Paris and we compare ourselves to people from the Parisian elite. But it can often be a political strategy to attract sympathy, and the votes of voters.

“Politicians’ storytelling helps reduce their social position”analyzes Adrien Naselli. “It is no longer rewarding to come from a privileged background. There is a kind of fed-up feeling of seeing an identical profile. Profiles like that of Gabriel Attal are caricatures, he can’t do anything to reduce his social origins. But all the others, those who don’t come from Paris, take advantage of it to put themselves in a provincial figure.”

In his book, the journalist seeks out people who are genuinely transclasses or class defectors, like him, and wants to meet their parents. It is difficult to find them, because many false class defectors respond to his call. Adrien Naselli notes that it is quite common to come to terms with one’s origins and to pass oneself off as more modest than one is. So it is not reserved for politicians. But when this method is used by our elected officials or members of governments, it tends to mask what all recent studies and analyses show (like here, here and here). Namely, that the social origins of politicians do not reflect French society at all.