In a very recent survey by the Foundation for Political Innovation (Fondapol) entitled "2022, the populist risk in France", devoted to the protest vote and carried out with the polling institute OpinionWay, a figure attracts attention: 55% . It is the percentage of people questioned who could vote, in the first round of the next presidential election, for a candidate who does not come from a political party. An application "outside the system" emerging at the last moment, the journalist Laetitia Krupa believes in it and devotes a book to it, "The temptation of the clown" (Ed Buchet-Chastel, 282 p, € 21.90).
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"A kingmaker for the second round"
Forty years after Coluche's candidacy, France, Laetitia Krupa is convinced, "will also know her Zelensky, her Donald Trump or her Beppe Grillo, the comedian creator of the 5-star populist movement in Italy". Thus she "tested", among those she designates as white clowns, not necessarily funny, but willingly hucksters, moralizers, "avengers" embodying the voice of the "voiceless", several "presidential" personalities.
The list is hardly surprising, we see them - or saw them - almost every day on the news channels.
From host Cyril Hanouna to singer Francis Lalanne, from Professor Didier Raoult to philosopher Michel Onfray, from the yellow vest Jacline Mouraud to Jean-Marie Bigard, not to mention General de Villiers, far from having said his last word, the suitors to the role are not lacking.
Either they themselves promote the idea, like Eric Zemmour, or the rumor blows their name, like that of Élise Lucet for example.
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"This does not mean that one or the other of these characters will reach the Elysee Palace, but its success will be sufficient for its proposals to weigh and make it a kingmaker for the second round", predicts the essayist .
A rumor brandished by Elysée advisers
Those concerned could convince elected officials likely to bring them the 500 signatures essential to compete at the Elysee Palace. "Why should the mayors escape the temptation of the time? I have met several willing to sponsor a non-system candidate rather than a Marine Le Pen who would always come up against, according to them, the glass ceiling ”. In fact, at a time when 70% of voters consider, according to the Fondapol study, that politicians "talk about subjects that do not concern them", candidatures from elsewhere could appear just as legitimate.
In 1981, the Mitterrand camp had first played on the Coluche adventure, deeming it useful to outsmart the right, before worrying about a poll phenomenon which risked overshadowing the socialist candidate.
The entertainer with the heart on the left had therefore withdrawn.
The author notes, intrigued, that this rumor of a candidate outside the system is regularly brandished by advisers from the Elysee, in turn relayed by the media.
For what purposes?
“When Emmanuel Macron calls Zemmour or Bigard on the phone, visits Raoult in Marseille, he places them at his level and siphons off their popularity, speculates Laetitia Krupa.
At the same time, he brings them into the system, he weakens the clown and poses himself as the one who can make things happen, without risking plunging the country into chaos ”.