The issue of purchasing power is, as we know, at the heart of French concerns during this presidential campaign, and even more so since the explosion in oil and gas prices following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, which caused prices to soar at the pump.
A Kantar survey, carried out at the end of March with a representative national sample of 1,000 people according to the quota method for L'Hémicycle and of which
Le Figaro
had the results exclusively, demonstrates this once again.
And there is only to have the words that come spontaneously to their minds when the question is raised: drop, reduction, price, retirement, inflation, gasoline, worry, salary...
Listening to them, 95% of them have noticed a rise, especially sharp, in prices in general and nearly 7 out of ten French people consider that they have a lower purchasing power than in the past.
Worse, and this is further proof of the population's feeling of downgrading for some time now, more than one person in two considers that the situation is not going to improve and that the purchasing power of their children , or even grandchildren, will be lower than theirs.
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Question categories, pre-retirees seem the least impacted by the decline in their purchasing power while young people, single parents and families are those who, in the eyes of the French, suffer the most difficulties.
A feeling that the war in Ukraine for more than a month has reinforced, in particular on the increase in wheat prices (which affects certain food products), the surge in energy costs and obviously on the rise in gasoline prices.
On the types of expenditure, it is without any common measure the expected sharp rise in energy bills (electricity, heating, gas, fuel oil, etc.) that worries the most the French, and more particularly the over 65s or voters of Fabien Roussel, faced with rising fuel, food and housing costs.
And to compensate for them, households mainly think of cutting back on their holidays, in particular the working classes and supporters of Marine Le Pen, their restaurant bills (more particularly Emmanuel Macron voters), their heating consumption (specifically people living in rural communities) or buying clothes.
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The solution will come mainly from companies which, for nearly 6 out of 10 French people, have the means to increase salaries.
The State is not to be outdone, with public opinion favoring the limitation of the prices of fuel, electricity and gas (84% consider it effective), that of the prices of basic necessities (81%), the reduction of VAT on all consumer goods (79%) or the increase of the minimum old age (75%).
Finally, when asked what feelings the election campaign gives them, the results are chilling: pessimism for 43% of them (specifically voters of Jean-Luc Mélenchon), indifference for 31% and anger for 22% .
Only one in five French people sees it as interesting, even curious.
Worse, three quarters say they are disappointed by its content, to the point that 46% of them still hesitate or do not know who they are going to vote for on Sunday.
For the time being, President Macron is the candidate in whom the French say they have the most confidence in leading the best purchasing power policy in the future (but at a very low level: 36%), ahead of Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon (25%), Valérie Pécresse (20%) and… Fabien Roussel (19%).
