neither New Popular Front nor RN, moderate voters feel lost

A Macronist from the start, Nicolas, 50, an industry consultant in Saint-Germain-en-Laye (Yvelines), is deep in thought. He would like to mark his rejection of the policy of the Macron government, “which risks going even further into liberalism”. But he cannot bring himself to vote for the left, whose program he considers “too wasteful and inapplicable”. As for the RN, he describes it as “a demagogic party which always blames foreigners”. There remains the temptation of a blank vote. “I’m going to look closely at the programs, but I’m afraid I won’t find what I’m looking for anywhere. »

They voted last June for the Macronist center right, the social democratic left led by Raphaël Glucksmann, or the Republicans “before” the Ciotti tear. But today, voters in the center feel totally lost. And often angry.

In 2017, Emmanuel Macron brought together these moderate French people around the rejection of extremes, the European Union and the concern for stability. From now on, it is no longer a question of choosing between the rupture embodied by the populists and the stability supported by the presidential camp, but of deciding against the former alone. A “hostage-taking” the citizens concerned are offended.

In view of the polls, which faithfully reflect the new balance of power very favorable to the National Rally since June 9, these orphans from the center risk most often having to decide between candidates from the New Popular Front and the Lepénist extreme right. However, if the left-wing coalition brings together a large number of people, it includes La France insoumise, whose assumed radicalism terrifies this fringe of opinion.

The refusal of extremes

Serge, for example. This Parisian business leader opted for the PS-Place publique list in the European elections “because it defended the greenest program”. Now, the forty-year-old plans to give his vote to the candidate of the presidential camp: “I cannot validate the strategies of alliance with the extremes. » But it will be reluctantly. “Emmanuel Macron has backed down so much on the environment…”

On the LR side, Xavier admits to being collapsed by “the grotesque vaudeville” into which Éric Ciotti has embarked the party, which has become “marginal”. However, this lawyer from the Paris suburbs, “loyal to the classic right”, will vote LR again. For these disoriented French people, stability is more than ever a safe haven.