Polls had predicted a victory for the National Front: it is a tidal wave that occurs, which brutally exacerbates the already concerning assessment that could be made about the state of French society.
Contrary to the widespread belief that abstention (50%) benefited the National Front by primarily penalizing the governing parties, the IPSOS exit poll suggests that abstention affected the National Front in the same proportions as the other parties: 56% for the National Front, 55% for the PS, 57% for the traditional right.
Therefore, the victory of the National Front is not due to a specific difference in mobilization. It is much deeper and much more systemic.
From this perspective, for the institutions of the Fifth Republic, the challenge is now significant: the mobilization of abstainers will not necessarily change the situation.
Still according to the Ipsos exit poll, the National Front is now the leading political force among those under 24 years old. With one-third of the voting intentions in this category, Marine Le Pen’s party is establishing itself as a party of the future that should outmode the governing parties for a long time.
This is probably the most troublesome figure for the “governing parties”: how can one imagine reshuffling the deck when generations gaining the right to vote are already convinced by the most extremist party in political life?
Faced with these strong numerical evidences, the “governing” parties seem paralyzed: is it a sign of an inability to evolve, or the result of a persistent blindness whose purpose is hard to discern?
Here we measure the gap that separates the increasingly radical and “clear-cut” expectations of the electorate on one hand, and the so-to-speak congenital practices of the governing parties.
No one knows where this slippery slope may lead the country.
