The RN conquering the vote of seniors, its “reinforced concrete ceiling” | EUROtoday

An alignment of lengthy tables for a “scrumptious meal” preceded by a day of dancing: on October 8, 2023, the seniors of Stiring-Wendel (Moselle) had a banquet. Flickering between the plastic chairs, a well-dressed thirty-year-old with a trimmed goatee and parting on the aspect, who might be their grandson however occurs to be a deputy. He wears a pink tie just like the paper napkins and wears a reassuring smile. “When I arrive in a room, it breaks the myth a little. Me being a fascist doesn't fit with my face, with my behavior, so people change their minds. »

Kévin Pfeffer is a National Rally (RN) deputy for Moselle and ensures “make a splash among the old ones”he who, ten years earlier, didn’t dare hand out a leaflet to retirees. “To seduce them, we lacked physical incarnation. The smile changes representations and the status of deputy ensures respect. Seniors are legitimists, they like to see us at government questions. »

The deputy and treasurer of the RN is not alone, on the far right, in perceiving the shift in the population which votes the most and has never, in the majority, given in to the Le Pen ballot. Seducing the old-timers: this is the obsession of the far-right party executives. They are waiting for the European elections on June 9 to confirm what all the opinion studies since the 2022 legislative elections suggest: with its deputies and the president of the party, Jordan Bardella, the far right is breaking the barrier that embodied over 65s.

“Anchored in a system of values”

In 2002, the now retired era mobilized towards Jean-Marie Le Pen in the identical proportions as the remainder of the energetic inhabitants. Twenty years later, the Lepenist vote jumped amongst these aged 45-65, however a lot much less on this cohort: solely 29% solid a Marine Le Pen poll within the second spherical of the 2022 presidential election. these over 65 signify a 3rd of voters in France. In 2022, it’s these “boomers” who assured Emmanuel Macron’s victory. Retired and aged, they’re, as political scientist Jérôme Fourquet factors out in his work France after (Threshold, 2023), “anchored in a system of values” hostile to the intense proper and “tendency less likely to be in phase with a political discourse of frank rupture”.

They are much more decisive throughout intermediate elections, for which they mobilize extra systematically than the remainder of the inhabitants. In the most recent survey by the Ipsos institute for the political analysis middle of Sciences Po and The world, carried out in March, 62% of these aged 70 and over have been sure to vote within the European elections, in comparison with 44% of the citizens. The defeat of the RN through the 2021 regional elections, in a context of robust abstention? It was them.

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