Arthur de Laborde, edited by Juline Garnier
modified to
6:12 p.m., April 06, 2022
Are you going to vote on Sunday? This is the question that torments politicians a few days before the first round. Uninspiring candidates for some, rejection of politics… Abstentionists met at Chanteloup-les-Vignes in the Yvelines justify their choice not to put a ballot in the ballot box.
Will abstention be the first party in France? Four days before the first round of the presidential election. the question is crucial. According to an OpinionWay barometer, 34% of voters are not sure about going to the polls. In a town where voting is far from being a passion, Chanteloup-les-Vignes in the north of Yvelines, during the last regional elections 82% of voters stayed at home.
Faced with electoral billboards installed close to the town hall of the town, Cyril, a 41-year-old employee in the building, is not very inspired. “None of the candidates I see at the moment really make me want to move. I’m not going to vote. And it’s not because they’re going to have a meeting or two and they’re going to come and shake hands with two or three people at the time of the election that they will give me the impression of being really connected to everyday life, to what I live, me, “he explains.
“A mixture of hesitation and the feeling that it’s not going to change anything”
A few meters further, Caroline, 32, explains that she has never slipped a ballot into a ballot box. And this florist has no intention of starting on Sunday. “It’s a mixture of hesitation, feeling that nothing is going to change, having to vote against someone and not for someone. And then after that it’s also a question of education. Me, I’m born into a family where we were never really interested in politics,” she says.
Jacques tells him that he has voted all his life. But this former carpenter assures him this time, it’s over. He no longer believes in it. “With all the problems there are in France, it’s not easy to choose a president because the president and all the people who present themselves are not up to it,” laments the 73-year-old man.
In Chanteloup les Vignes, abstention had reached 28% during the last presidential election, in 2017. This was 6 points more than the national average.