Why more and more young French people are voting for the far right
In the 1980s, a French punk rock band coined a rallying cry against the country’s far right that has held power for decades. The slogan, still chanted by the left at protests, is “La jeunesse emmerde le Front National,” which doesn’t translate well without insults but essentially tells the far right to fuck off.
That raw battle cry is an example of what was the prevailing view not only in France but elsewhere: that young people tend to lean left in their politics. Now that idea has been called into question as more and more young people have joined with parts of the French electorate to support the Rassemblement National, a party once considered too extreme to govern.
The results of Sunday’s parliamentary election, the first of a two-part contest, showed young people from across the political spectrum voting in much greater numbers than in previous years, with a majority voting left. But one of the biggest jumps was in the estimated number of 18- to 24-year-olds who cast their ballots for the Rassemblement National, in a vote that many say could reshape France.
According to the polls, a quarter of the age group voted for the party. a recent poll according to the Ifop polling institute, an increase from 12 percent just two years ago.
There is no reason for such a significant shift. The Rassemblement National has tried to clean up its image, for example by kicking out openly anti-Semitic people who shared the deep-seated prejudices of the movement’s founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen. And the party’s anti-immigrant platform appeals to some who see uncontrolled migration as a problem.
The party also benefits from the passage of time: many of the young people who supported the Rassemblement National were just toddlers, or not even born, when Le Pen surprised France by reaching the second round of the 2002 presidential election.
And Rassemblement National was smart to choose a new face: Jordan Bardella, a charismatic 28-year-old with an impressive TikTok following who took over as president in 2022 from Le Pen’s daughter, Marine. He has helped clean up the party’s racist image while advocating for preferential treatment of French citizens over legal migrants.
“We are from a generation that never knew Jean-Marie Le Pen,” said Enzo Marano, 23, the head of a local youth section of Rally National who recently handed out the party’s flyers in a Paris suburb. “We are the Bardella generation.”
Analysts say Bardella embodies the latest phase of the National Rally’s decades-long effort to rebrand itself. He’s used social media to reach young voters and wrapped his message in a slick social media campaign that revolves around him.
The focus on Mr Bardella is a crucial tactic for the party, whose founders were former Nazi collaborators and some of whose members remain under fire for racist or anti-Semitic remarks.
“If you’re talking more about the party itself, you have to talk about the history and ideology of that party,” said Laurent Lardeux, a sociologist at the National Institute of Youth and Popular Education. But if the campaign was focused on an individual, he added, “you can put ideology aside and talk much more about character, attitude — it’s branding and communication.”
That strategy, combined with growing anger against President Emmanuel Macron, appears to have worked so far. The Rassemblement National defeated Macron’s party in the recent European parliamentary elections, a poor showing that led him to call early elections for the French parliament.
But his gamble that the country would move back to the center seemed to fail when the Rassemblement National dominated in those elections as well. A second round for most seats is scheduled for this weekend.
The growing popularity of the far right has alarmed the left, which remains the choice of most young voters. The New Popular Front, an alliance of left-wing parties, won 42 percent of the vote from people aged 18 to 24 on Sunday, more than any other group, according to Ifop.
Left-wing activists are doing everything they can to get as many people as possible to the polls for the second round of the elections next Sunday.
“We have no choice,” Amadou Ka, a candidate for the New Popular Front, said recently while campaigning in Creil, a town about 30 miles north of Paris.
The participation rate for people aged 18 to 24 rose to 56 percent in the first round of voting, compared to 25 percent in 2022according to Ifop.
Analysts say young people are more likely to vote when the stakes are high, as is the case in this election, which could bring the National Rally to power for the first time. If the party were to win an absolute majority, Mr. Macron would be forced to appoint Mr. Bardella as prime minister, giving him a say in domestic policy.
For those who support the right, this is the great opportunity for the Rassemblement National.
“We are on the eve of power,” Mr. Marano said as he handed out campaign materials.
Some people were openly hostile, crumpling the leaflets and angrily referring to the party’s anti-Semitic and racist past. “This is fascism for me,” said an older man in broken French, pointing to a leaflet with a beaming Mr. Bardella on it.
According to Olivier Galland, a sociologist at the National Centre for Scientific Research, Bardella appeals to young working-class voters, many of whom live in rural areas and often struggle to find stable jobs.
“Bardella embodies that part of French youth that feels forgotten by traditional politicians,” he said.
Noah Ludon, 19, a history student who joined Rassemblement National this month, said he could identify with Mr. Bardella because they both grew up in middle-class families in Parisian suburbs with a large immigrant population.
“I don’t feel at home anymore,” Mr Ludon said, referring to an influx of migrants. “It’s become difficult to find a French butcher.” Asked to explain, he said he meant a butcher who wasn’t halal.
Mr Ludon, who said his mother was attacked in a supermarket car park, said crime was also a major problem.
Such statements echo Mr. Bardella’s talking points, which he has shared with his more than 1.8 million followers on TikTok. While other French politicians are also on TikTok, Mr. Bardella is known for being particularly adept, receiving more likes and comments than other politicians — even politicians like Mr. Macron who have far more followers.
“He’s good at balancing serious and light-hearted content, surfing trends, showing a personal side,” said Marie Guyomarc’h, a spokeswoman for Visibrain, a social media analytics company. “He’s not the only one,” she added, “but he’s the only one for whom it’s worked so well.”
Many of Mr. Bardella’s videos focus on classic far-right talking points like crime and immigration. But other clips have little to do with policy.
In some from Mr. Bardella most popular videos, he hints at parody video montages that play on the idea that he and Gabriel Attal, Macron’s prime minister, are secretly in love — a nod to his followers that he knows what they’re posting and has a sense of humor about it. On social media, he has also referred the video game Call of Duty, which, according to a profile in Le Mondehe played as a teenager.
In other words, he is one of them.
It is precisely this camaraderie and the far-right agenda that he tries to humanize that frightens many young people with a migration background or who belong to an ethnic minority.
Rania Daki, 21, a student and activist who grew up in the Paris suburb of Aubervilliers, said she was frightened as a child by talk about Ms Le Pen. She recalled that those who supported the far right did so in muted terms.
“Now it has become completely normal,” said Mrs. Daki.
She and two friends wrote an open letter in the newspaper Libération They call on working-class neighborhoods to vote and go door-to-door to spread the message.
But she said outreach was difficult. Many young people said they were disillusioned with politics. Others said they didn’t follow the news.
Concerns about discrimination and police brutality are particularly high in the places she has taken up residence. The National Rally wants to create a legally mandated “presumption of self-defense” for law enforcement, which activists fear will make it even harder to hold officers accountable for police brutality, which often targets people of color.
When the percentage of votes from the far-right appeared on a television screen in the offices of the far-right party on Sunday, Ghettoupan association that organizes the community in the multicultural Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis, there was a shock.
“Even before these results, people were being attacked, insulted and spat on,” said Mariam Touré, 22, a law student and community activist who attended the event. Her family fled the civil war in Ivory Coast in 2009.
“They will never erase us from the political landscape,” Ms. Touré told the crowd defiantly. “At the same time,” she added, her voice cracking, “I am very afraid.”
