By Thomas Brooke of Remix News
An increasing number of young French voters are preparing to vote for right-wing parties in the upcoming European Parliament elections in June, the latest polling has revealed.
According to an Ipsos survey published on Tuesday, 31 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds in France are lending their vote to Jordan Bardella’s National Rally (RN) — the anti-immigration party still heavily influenced by nationalist firebrand and former presidential candidate Marine Le Pen.
A further 3 percent of young people in France are backing Éric Zemmour’s hard-right Reconquête, for whom Marion Maréchal, the niece of Le Pen, is the party’s lead candidate.
National Rally’s popularity among young voters has risen considerably since the previous polling from December, with the party up 9 percentage points, while Reconquête has fallen from 8 percent to 3 percent.
France, Ipsos poll:
— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) March 12, 2024
European Parliament election
Among 18-24 year-old voters
RN-ID: 31% (+9)
EELV-G/EFA: 18% (+2)
LFI-LEFT: 17%
PS/PP-S&D: 9%
LR-EPP: 6% (+2)
PCF-LEFT: 6% (+1)
Bd'E-RE: 4% (-6)
REC-ECR: 3% (-5)
PA-LEFT: 1% (n.a.)
LO-*: 1% (-3)
PRG~S&D: 1%
AR-*: 1% (+1)… pic.twitter.com/pX6w2s9B3P
Bardella’s RN currently sits with the Identity & Democracy (ID) parliamentary grouping, which is made up of conservative parties across Europe including Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PVV) in the Netherlands, Matteo Salvini’s Lega party in Italy, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), and Herbert Kickl’s Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ).
The key takeaway from the current polling is the disillusionment with establishment parties felt among French youth as young voters drift towards both the left and right of the political spectrum.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party is expected to attain just 4 percent of the vote — a clear rejection of the governing centrists — while 41 percent continue to support the long-held tradition of young voters being left-wing by backing far-left parties such as the Greens, LFI, and the Communists.
Among the electorate as a whole, RN continues to enjoy mass support and remains the frontrunner as it successfully taps into wider concerns about mass immigration, economic woes, and the culture wars. At 31 percent among all French voters, Bardella’s party is 13 percentage points ahead of Macron’s coalition parties, which have fallen by 4 percentage points in the last three months.
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