Élections présidentielles France : Se servir de la colère, de l’émotion, ou de la peur

During a political campaign, two legitimate and natural passions drive the people when it comes to making a choice: anger and fear. While Jean-Luc Mélenchon has capitalized on the former, Nicolas Sarkozy and Marine Le Pen are vying to exploit the latter. It would seem that anger generates votes for the left and far left, while fear produces votes for the right and far right.

As for François Bayrou, whose discourse on the debt remains too moderate, he is losing ground in the electoral arena. It's worth remembering that it was when he successfully appealed to the people's anger (the Bourget speech) that François Hollande climbed in the polls. By continuing along this path, he has a better chance of remaining among the French people's favorite candidates than by sticking to a strictly rational, technocratic platform.

The great predecessors of the candidates for the French presidency (Mendès, Clémenceau, Blum, Mitterand) did not hesitate to appeal in their patriotic speeches to the fight against injustice, to the exaltation of a common republican ideal as well as to the denunciation of the selective privileges granted to a few at the expense of the population in order to get their messages across.

Certains observateurs sont d’avis que Nicolas Sarkozy, de son côté, utilise la superficialité des médias ainsi que des réseaux sociaux pour véhiculer ses idées, et qu’il préfère jouer la carte de l’émotion plutôt que de s’engager dans un échange démocratique argumenté. Son récent discours auprès des étudiants en constituerait, prétendent-ils, un bon exemple.

As Le Figaro reported two days ago: «…like in 2007, the legislative campaign will be very short: a good month between the second round of the presidential election, on May 6, and the first round for the renewal of the deputies, on June 10.» Consequently, the candidates still have only a little time to find the best way to raise awareness of their programs among the French people.