A keen observer of French political life and a regular contributor to FigaroVox, Maxime Tandonnet has notably published
“
André Tardieu.
The misunderstood
”
(Perrin, 2019).
The TF1 channel announced that its evening dedicated to the first round of the presidential election, on April 10, would end at 9:20 p.m. to make way for the rerun of the film
“
Les Visiteurs
”.
According to Thierry Thuillier, its director of information:
“Usages, tastes and expectations of viewers have evolved”
.
This decision marks the end, on the channel which brings together the largest audience, of the endless election evenings which involved viewers in a long watch from 7 p.m. to more than midnight…
It is far from being merely anecdotal and no doubt consecrates a profound change in French society.
It signals the growing disinterest of some French people in politics and their indifference towards elections.
Of course, this phenomenon is not new.
He is expressed in the annual CEVIPOF polls on confidence which show that 80% of French people have an unfavorable view of politics and even more in the rise in abstentionism which has reached an all-time high of nearly 70% in regional elections. of 2021. What is quite new at the moment is the growing disinterest of the French for the queen election, the presidential one.
The rule of the game, for a private channel, is to adapt to the tastes and wishes of viewers.
The private channel is not primarily responsible for France's democratic decline.
Maxime Tandonnet
Reproaching TF1 for this choice by accusing it of favoring ratings over the public good would be in flagrant bad faith.
The rule of the game, for a private channel, is to adapt to the tastes and wishes of viewers.
The private channel is not primarily responsible for France's democratic decline.
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Doubtless never in the history of the Republic has a national electoral campaign been so hollow and insignificant.
Its stake is essentially limited to a choice of people, like a consumer arbitrating between several bars of soap.
Even on the occasion of the last presidential elections, the voter decided on a theme, even a very general idea, beyond an individual.
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in 1974 announced an “advanced liberal society”;
Mitterrand in 1981 wanted to be the cantor of “liberties” then of “United France” in 1988;
Chirac in 1995 announced that he wanted to fight against the "social fracture" and in 2002 to improve security;
Sarkozy in 2007 advocated the value of work and national identity;
even Hollande wanted to tax the rich and impose marriage “for all”.
However, the current campaign gives rise to the most perfect nihilism.
A few tax gadgets, slogans or promises which everyone feels will never be kept (like the “compulsory universal service” in 2017) will not change anything.
The wave of betrayals, which characterizes the 2022 election even more than usual, adds to this deleterious impression.
The multi-daily polling hype and the accompanying comments point to a presidential election that has been folded in advance for five years.
Maxime Tandonnet
The fundamental subjects for the destiny of France, for example the explosion of the public debt, violence, poverty and growing inequalities, the vertiginous decline in education, deindustrialization and its corollary, a gigantic trade deficit which signs the impoverishment of the country or even the control of migration are completely passed over in silence or worse, treated in a caricatural way.
Do we think that the French would be malleable and unintelligent enough to be satisfied with choosing between “soaps”?
Admittedly, the war in Ukraine has the effect of crushing all other considerations and placing the “warlord” on a pedestal, but that does not explain everything.
For two years, French politics has been crushed and anesthetized by the covid epidemic.
And after ?
Read also Presidential 2022: "Are we witnessing the crash of French democracy?"
The fact is that French democracy is in deep crisis.
The multi-daily polling hype and the accompanying comments point to a presidential election that has been folded in advance for five years.
Then why go vote?
Alongside the "warlord", the main outsiders (whether it pleases or displeases), are not presidential in the sense that their arrival at the Elysée (almost impossible) would lead to new heartbreaks and new impasses.
In the eyes of the electorate, or what is left of it, the presidential election (conditioning the following legislative elections) becomes a stress relief more than an opportunity to seriously prepare for the future.
Everything happens as if this electorate had henceforth integrated public impotence.
Politics no longer has the tools or means of action to change life or, more modestly, to improve the daily situation of French people and prepare for the future.
From then on, he switches to excessive communication, manipulation and the daily narcissistic spectacle.
The French – probably mostly much more lucid than their leaders think – have simply become aware of this fact.
The choice of TF1 therefore only consecrates the acute and dramatic crisis of French democracy.
