Buying power: “Maximum expectations, minimum credibility”

In a presidential campaign, the thematic unknown hangs over the candidates even more than the political suspense. What question will crystallize the debates? We remember that in 2002, Lionel Jospin had paid dearly for having underestimated the importance of security issues. At the start of the year, a trick question arises: that of purchasing power.

Read alsoThe issue of purchasing power at the heart of the presidential election

From Mélenchon to Pécresse, from Macron to Le Pen, all the contenders for the Élysée are now making it a priority. It was not registered in advance. It has long been thought that the theme of identity – and its corollaries, security and immigration – carried in particular by Éric Zemmour, the right or Marine Le Pen, would be first. Or that the threat of climate change would make 2022 the first presidential election centered on the environment. Or that the Covid crisis was going to impose the health issue as the first discriminating factor. All these subjects have not disappeared; far from there. And the question of purchasing power has never been marginal in the concerns…