Press
With almost 50 percent of the votes, 18- to 24-year-olds in France voted primarily for the left. A good third of them voted for Le Pen’s right-wing populists.
Paris – With the landslide victory of the right-wing populist National Rally (RN) in the first round and the triumph of the left-wing alliance Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) after the run-off vote, are facing France’s parliament to have two camps in the future who could hardly be more different. But according to evaluations, both have their supporters in the camp of the young electorate.
This applies in the second round of voting French election According to initial media reports, this was mainly for the left-wing party alliance, which surprisingly secured the majority of parliamentary seats, but by no means a parliamentary majority. On the evening after the election, media such as the broadcaster TRT World relieved young people on the streets of France’s metropolises, celebrating France’s diversity and expressing relief about the election result.
Election results in France: 48 percent of young people vote left, 31 percent right
A look at the results of the official poll conducted by the IFOP Institute, which as of Monday afternoon (8 July) has only published detailed results for the first round of voting, shows that this is only one side of the coin. According to the poll, 48 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds had already cast their votes for the left-wing alliance on the first day of voting last week, but the right-wing populist Rassemblement National was also able to unite a good third of the age group behind it with 31 percent.
Among 25- to 34-year-olds, 39 percent voted for the left-wing NFP alliance, while 35 percent of the votes in this group went to the right-wing populists. The fact that the country is torn apart is not only evident in the general election result, which makes finding a majority in parliament a difficult matter, but also in particular in the young people in France.
Young and old, city and country: France voted differently in the parliamentary elections
The differences between urban and rural areas were also clearly evident, after the RN dominated rural areas, especially in the first round of voting. The capital newspaper also reported The Parisian about many young people who live, study or work in Paris, but still go home to vote with their parents in order to mitigate the shift to the right with their vote. In the metropolis of Paris, where the election results map after the first round of voting showed a much more colorful picture than the rest of the country, where the RN dominated, they felt as if their votes were “not needed”.
A look at the age distribution of the survey from the first round also shows that the surprising victory of the left-wing coalition in the more rural areas is mainly due to the younger French people. Just as the proportion of voters for the left-wing party decreases significantly with increasing age, it tends to increase among the voters of the right-wing RN, which is reflected in a 40 percent majority in the 35- to 49-year-old and 50- to 64-year-old age groups. In the over-65 age group, as with first-time voters, only 31 percent voted for the RN, while a full 32 percent voted for Macron’s governing coalition Ensemble.
What unites young people in France, of whom only 12 percent (18- to 24-year-olds) and 14 percent (25- to 34-year-olds) supported the coalition, is without question the desire to put the country’s political leadership into new hands. However, forming a government out of this is now once again in the hands of the center, which had actually ruled out cooperation with both the left and the right. (saka)
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