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Presidential 2022: why do some French people choose to abstain?
Audio 14:11
Damaged and torn official campaign posters of candidates for the 2022 presidential election in France.
© Chesnot/Getty Images
By: Alexandra Cagnard Follow
2 mins
Will abstention be the big winner of the race for the Élysée?
According to polling institutes, it could reach some 30%, a record for a first round of presidential elections under the Fifth Republic.
Why abstain from voting?
Who are those who make this choice?
Alexis Bédu, journalist at RFI, has traveled through several regions to meet French people who have decided not to slip their ballots into the ballot box.
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"
Abstention is a subject that comes up very often, but beyond that, there is above all a fed up side and I have felt something very special on the ground in recent months
", explains Alexis Bédu in this episode of
News Witnesses
.
What he particularly remembers from the people he has met, particularly in small towns, is that they feel abandoned: “
Decentralization has never taken place in these areas.
I take the example of the village of Paudy, in Indre.
Almost all the shops have closed, there is only a small grocery store run by an 84-year-old lady.
When she stops working, there will be nothing left.
State grants have fallen by more than 50,000 euros in recent years.
The mayor is totally dejected and the inhabitants have a real feeling of abandonment
”.
The tone seems the same in the suburbs.
Alexis went to Clichy-sous-Bois, in Seine-Saint-Denis.
“
People want to live normally, but they are stuck.
Many have told me that they want to work, but they can't find it.
Add to this poor housing, the feeling of insecurity for some, the feeling of a police state for others and all this leads to abstention
”.
“
However,
continues Alexis
, they are enormously interested in the political life of the country.
But all the debates, every day, on the veil, on Islam, on insecurity, this image sent back from the suburbs, this pushes some to withdraw, to no longer believe in anything
”.
Alexis Bédu has met several generations, but, he says, “
among young people, abstention is very present.
There is always this desire for more democracy, to give power to the people and paradoxically not to vote so as not to endorse what is put in place
”.
“
Abstention
, concludes Alexis,
has a very plural profile, but what is certain is that a gap is being widened and it is deeper and deeper between different populations of French society
”.
►To listen also: Elections 2022: portrait of France of defiance
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