Lhe results obtained during the European elections by the National Rally (RN) should largely be understood as revenge against pension reform and more broadly as a demand for recognition and improvement of the difficulties encountered at work. In our collective work What do we know about work? (Presses de Sciences Po, 2023), we were able to document how, for a large majority of French people, working conditions are poor, work has intensified, work accidents are more numerous and psychosocial risks are higher. than elsewhere. These difficulties were denied by the government during the 2023 pension reform, but also by the main employer representatives during the negotiations which failed, at the beginning of January, on the pact dealing with the quality of life at work.
In a column published in The world in January 2023, we announced that pension reform would fuel the RN vote. More generally, it is a vote of opposition to those who have remained deaf to the economic and social problems manifested by the French. A vote sanctioning policies blind to social realities, such as dependence on cars and the constrained budgets of the “yellow vests” analyzed by Pierre Blavier in his book Yellow vests. The revolt of constrained budgets (PUF, 2021). It is also a reaction to the lack of revaluation of “essential” professions after Covid-19, professions which are nevertheless poorly off, as the work of researcher Christine Erhel has shown, a revenge against the imposition of the reform pensions although the French were opposed to them because they were unable to work longer.
By presenting itself as the party of those who work hard, by opposing them to the elites who neglect and despise them, the RN recovers this vote of resentment. More and more political science work highlights the link between job dissatisfaction, deterioration of working conditions, vertical management, loss of meaning and voting for the extreme radical rights in Europe.
Low expression capacity
Thus, Luc Rouban, in his work The True Victory of the RN (Presses de Sciences Po, 2022), underlines the link between the absence of professional recognition and the RN vote. Thomas Coutrot recently showed in a study (“the long arm of work”) that the most salient professional variables linked to the RN vote are the status of worker, physical arduousness and the fact of usually working at night or early in the morning.
You have 54.47% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.