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  • More than half of the French would be in favor of the return of the death penalty in the country, according to a poll which, in eight years of existence, has never seen a result so high.

  • When they were only 44% in 2019, how to explain such a breakthrough?

  • Between authoritarian temptation, taboo swept away by confinement and intolerance to violence,

    20 Minutes

    takes stock.

55% of French people are now in favor of reinstating the death penalty, according to an Ipsos / Sopra Steira poll for 

Le Monde

, the Jean-Jaurès Foundation and the Institut Montaigne published on Monday.

A rate never reached since the creation of this survey, eight years ago.

In 2019, they were "only" 44% to be capital punishment, the lowest proportion.

How to explain this evolution ?

By digging into the results, the most marked breakthroughs are observed among supporters LR (48% in 2019, 71% in 2020) and PCF-LFI (8% in 2019, 39% in 2020).

“There is an accentuation of authoritarian ideas on the left as well as on the right.

We see it with questions such as the need for a leader.

From now on, the opinion of the left is very favorable there, which was not the case before.

These questions of authorities are also very strong on the right.

There are real convergences between the LR and RN electorate on these issues, ”supports Benjamin Morel, doctor of political science.

The end of the untouchables?

But to see in it only a rapprochement between the LR and RN electorate, or a rise in authoritarian ideas on the left, would be missing out on a much more global trend.

Because the wave of authoritarian ideas is not a French case against the tide, but is sweeping the entire Western world, supports Benjamin Morel, in the wake of Donald Trump or Boris Johnson.

The Doctor of Political Science evokes "a democratic revolt against fundamental rights".

Gone are the days, though not so long ago, when the idea that the rule of law was complementary to popular sovereignty founding democracy remained.

Fundamental rights were in a way excluded from the debate and from the field of deliberation without this offending.

“From now on, democracy is seen as antagonistic with unassailable fundamental rights, which would be contrary to the sovereignty of the people.

The people must be able to question everything, there can no longer, according to some, be any immutable or untouchable law ”, insists the researcher.

Technically unstoppable

He cites in particular Brexit, a way for part of the British people to "emancipate" from Brussels.

Decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union and of the European Court of Human Rights on voting rights in prison in the United Kingdom would have scalded and served as fuel for Brexiters, arguing that nothing could supplant British sovereignty.

However, the abolition of the death penalty is precisely that: inscribed in the French Constitution since 2007, it is technically unbeatable or unmodifiable by the people alone.

And nowadays, an immutable law is not what is best perceived.

The impression of crime everywhere, violence accepted nowhere

Véronique Le Goaziou, doctor and expert in the sociology of justice, notes a lower tolerance for violence.

"Especially with the attacks, of course, a fortiori in this period of trial for Charlie Hebdo", but also with the sexual crimes, often hidden in the past, and today "put on the front of the public scene and considered as absolute crime, absolute evil ”.

Crimes more and more badly tolerated, and a justice that is said to be more and more lax?

"This feeling is paradoxical, because over the last twenty years, therefore since the abolition of the death penalty, justice has on the contrary tended to become more severe", supports Véronique Le Goaziou, citing for example driving on the road or sexual violence: “But with the increased media coverage of crimes and verdicts, it is enough that one is disappointed once with the justice system for one to have a disappointing view of it.

"

Containment as an explanation?

The doctor also takes the time to recall that when the death penalty was abolished in France in 1981, the measure was far from unanimous.

Suddenly, these 55% of opinions favorable to its rehabilitation would perhaps not be the marker of an era, but rather the proof of the indecision of the French on the question.

And if it was absolutely necessary to see a logic attributable to 2020 compared to the 44% of 2019, we can also wonder about the confinement.

Not just because we all wanted to lead our neighbor flautist to the guillotine.

Benjamin Morel: “Containment brought the idea that a policy could be effective because it greatly encroached on our fundamental freedoms.

It's the end of a taboo, there is nothing that cannot be changed.

"

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