Lhe wave 15 of the Political Confidence Barometer, a vast annual survey carried out by the OpinionWay institute for the Sciences Po Political Research Center between January 8 and 18, 2024, highlights the skepticism surrounding the government action carried out by Gabriel Attal, since his appointment to Matignon on January 9, against a backdrop of farmers’ anger. From crisis to crisis, macronism never seems to be able to reconstitute social cohesion despite its founding project of increased social mobility and recognition of merit. The new prime minister is advancing on ground undermined by distrust and the very dark outlook that the French have on their own society.
Only 24% of respondents consider that we live in France in a just society, with only 3% being ” Totally agree “ with this idea. This percentage hardly varies according to age (19% for high school students, 23% for retirees), nor even according to the profession of the respondents: 20% of workers, but only 30% of managers and members of higher professions adhere to this idea. Far from a return of the class struggle, we are above all in a head-on political opposition between Emmanuel Macron’s voters in the first round of the 2022 presidential election (42% think that society is just) and those of the candidate from La France insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon (20%), or those of Marine Le Pen, candidate of the National Rally (RN), and Eric Zemmour, candidate of Reconquête! (18% and 19%). Injustice is, as we see, denounced as firmly on the extreme right as on the left or the extreme left.
This feeling of injustice is linked to representations of work and the perceived absence of recognition. If a very large majority of French people (75%) remain convinced that their work “serves a purpose”, in all professions, many have the feeling of a lack of recognition. Barely half of those surveyed (53%) say that the efforts made in their professional life have been recognized and rewarded. Certainly, this average changes according to professional level and income per household, going from 43% among workers to 64% among executives, but it remains low, including in the households of the famous “middle class”, whose income is between 2,000 and 4,500 euros per month (56%).
Feeling of social contempt
Worse still, this lack of recognition is accompanied by a general feeling of social contempt. For 68% of respondents, France remains a society in which many people are despised. Here again, the differences by professional category or level of diploma are small: 70% for holders of a CAP, 64% for holders of a diploma higher than bac + 2. Social protest is therefore not only rooted in differences in income which would not be commensurate with the efforts made: it also has a moral dimension. French society is not only experienced as unjust, but also as disdainful of those “who are nothing”.
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