Bruno Retailleau, Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
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SIPA
Senator LR from Vendée Bruno Retailleau, presidential candidate, is launching an app this Thursday to boost his campaign using digital technology.
On Monday, Marine Le Pen launched a participatory site to feed its presidential project.
In December, the Insoumis put an activist action platform online.
20 Minutes
reviewed these digital campaign tools that have become essential, with the help of a specialist in the use of the Web by politicians.
“2022”, quite simply.
This is the name of the application launched this Thursday by Bruno Retailleau for his presidential campaign.
Fifteen months before the election, Senator Les Républicains de Vendée, who pleads for a right-wing primary, has a digital tool dedicated to his activists.
A few days earlier, Marine Le Pen launched a participatory site to collect proposals from citizens for her presidential program.
At the end of December, the Insoumis put online a coordination platform to support the candidacy of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
20 Minutes
reviewed this range of digital tools, now essential in politics, while 77% of French people own a smartphone, and 76% a computer.
A fun app for Retailleau
After six months of outsourced development, the “2022” app is available on Android and iOS.
It already allows you to read articles on the news of the president of Force Républicaine (FR), to answer polls on proposals ("for or against the ban on the wearing of the veil for girls?") Or to make a donation for the campaign.
The senator's team is planning new features, starting in June, to make it a sort of activist's Swiss Army knife app.
Users will be able to create and join support committees, participate in meetings, register for missions (towing, phoning, etc.), share content on social networks, register for a meeting, etc.
For the app to please, Force Républicaine relies on "gamification", making militant activity fun.
"We will ensure that each action gives rise to points", explains Jean-Baptiste Doat, general delegate of the movement.
"People love it, and it's rewarding because when you get up at 6am to tow, you sometimes have the feeling that nobody knows at the headquarters in Paris."
The party hopes "to create a militant digital community around Bruno Retailleau".
With 20,000 members, it aims 5 to 10,000 downloads by June, and - why not - a recruitment of younger activists.
The specialist in digital campaigns Fabienne Greffet is a little skeptical, even if an app makes it possible to “offer uses more suited to the daily lives of younger audiences”.
The app is also "an element of differentiation for Bruno Retailleau", believes the teacher-researcher at the University of Lorraine, and a lever to mobilize activists, "at a time when parties are struggling to recruit vital forces" .
"A positive agora" for Marine Le Pen
As for the National Rally (RN), a participatory site was launched on January 25 by the president.
Via a form, you can share, anonymously or not, an idea or an article.
The approach, which recalls the platform "Desires for the future" launched in 2007 by the socialist Ségolène Royal, is not however really part of the DNA of the movement, recognizes Franck Allisio, adviser to Marine Le Pen.
“It responds to a demand from people, who want to contribute, and Marine wishes to open up her campaign as much as possible,” explains Paca's regional adviser.
With this site, the boss of the RN hopes to "get out of partisan logic" and "take the temperature, see what subjects interest our supporters", continues Franck Allisio.
She plans to include some of these contributions in her program.
“Experience has shown that citizens' contributions are used to legitimize the candidate's program, rather than to renew it.
These are not really idea boxes ”, nuance Fabienne Greffet.
But the goal is also to garner rallies, like the tandem that manages the project: Franck Allisio left the UMP in 2015 and Jean-Philippe Tanguy is the former right-hand man of Nicolas Dupont-Aignan.
On Mlavenir.fr ("a positive name for a positive agora"), there are currently about fifteen texts, including a forum for "wearing a uniform at school" written by a municipal councilor RN , or a plea against the government's pension reform.
"This site is also part of the dynamic of reinformation by offering points of view not conveyed in the media", observes Fabienne Greffet.
A "social network of action" for Mélenchon
Last December, the Insoumis for their part launched Actionpopulaire.fr, an action platform for Jean-Luc Mélenchon's presidential campaign.
Particularly rebellious, it was developed internally by employee activists of the movement, and it is "100% free software".
To register, you have to either sponsor the candidacy of Jean-Luc Mélenchon or join rebellious France.
You can then access a news feed, a map of action groups near your home, the calendar of events, etc.
An internal messaging system will soon be developed to allow activists to communicate on the platform, rather than going through other channels.
"We are trying to develop this aspect of the social network of action", explains Jill Maud Royer, responsible for the movement's digital tools.
"It is a place dedicated to activist involvement, and this site also contributes to creating a gradual entry into activism, thanks to digital technology", theorizes the developer and activist, recalling the concept of "movement without edges" formulated by Jean -Luc Mélenchon.
Another asset for the movement, the site makes it possible to know in real time “the level of activist activity online”.
LFI claims "several tens of thousands of registered" on Actionpopulaire.fr.
"Jean-Luc Mélenchon has built a large online community for several years, this platform is therefore a complement", Fabienne Greffet analyzes.
"No candidate can do without an online presence, and this constraint has been reinforced by the health crisis."
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By the Web
France rebellious
Bruno Retailleau
National gathering
Presidential election
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