How does the government want to flirt with the middle class?

• This Thursday, Jean Castex announced the launch of a compensation of 100 euros to compensate for inflation in France, for any French with less than 2,000 euros net per month.

• Compensation renamed by the Prime Minister "middle class compensation".

• Six months before the presidential election, the government is trying to seduce this population.

This Thursday, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced compensation of 100 euros for the French earning less than 2,000 euros net per month to offset the record rise in fuel prices and inflation in general. The resident of Matignon himself called this aid "the middle class allowance", while it should, still according to the Prime Minister, concern 38 million French people in total, including retirees, apprentices, students ...

However, it is indeed on the middle classes that Jean Castex insisted heavily in his speech, even specifying that the government had given up giving to the wealthier classes in order to present a "fair and effective" measure.

This is how the man from the territories justified having given up the two other solutions for a time considered, the fuel check and a reduction in taxes, because these two measures would have "benefited the well-to-do classes."

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Cover your electorate

The strings are a bit thick and communication poles apart from subtlety, but at least the message is clear: the government wants to reach out to those, and only those, who need it most, and well aware of the deep inequalities which ravage the country. A classic political message in the run-up to a presidential election, as explained by Alexandre Eyries *, teacher-researcher in information and communication sciences at the University of Burgundy. "It's a habitual movement at the end of the mandate to try to find the good graces of the middle class, which always has the impression of being left behind and of being the one who suffers the most from the measures and the taxes. . "

The stake is all the more important for Emmanuel Macron in the event of a second round for the probable moment against Marine Le Pen, he must not leave this part of the population to the National Rally.

“There was no need to specify at this point that it served the middle classes, supports Stéphane Rozès, political scientist and president of CAP (Advice, analyzes and perspectives).

If Jean Castex wanted to pass the message so much, it is to indicate that this measure was intended for them.

Moreover, it was not until the day after the announcement, this Friday, that other members of the executive clarified that the measure was also aimed at students.

Avoid the return of "yellow vests"

In addition to serving the election, this insistence on the middle class has a much more concrete goal: to extinguish any risk of a social blaze, and to avoid a new “yellow vests” -type crisis, which has also started because of the price of gasoline. It is not only an economic support, but also a consideration towards a population tending to feel neglected. The "yellow vests" had gathered in front of this feeling of a disconnection of the elites from their daily life and of an abandonment of the political class. "There, the message could not be clearer: 'yes, we take you into account" ", notes Alexandre Eyries.

Even the way the money will be paid speaks volumes about the government's intentions.

Jean Castex insisted on the fact that the citizen would have nothing to achieve and that the transfer would be made automatically without the beneficiary having to come forward.

For the researcher, this is a way to present it all the more as a gift, and to build a potential sympathy towards the government.

Can the gift pay?

A little big for it to pass? Here too, if the maneuver is not very subtle, it is more a form of tradition. “Each time a president represents himself, he gives a gift at the end of his mandate,” recalls Alexandre Eyries. A gift that has little impact on voting intentions. If the middle class allowance can extinguish any risk of social movement, it will probably have little impact on 2022.

Especially as Stéphane Rozès reminds us, it arrives really early, six months before the first round: “Emmanuel Macron is the first president candidate who pushes so far and so early the confusion between the two roles.

Six months before the election, its calendar is entirely dedicated to the short term, while the period would call for structuring and long-term measures.

The 100 euros could have their effect, they are nonetheless anachronistic.

* Alexandre Eyries is the author of 

(Ed. Universitaires de Dijon) and 

(Ed. ISTE in London).

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• Yellow vests

• Fuel

• Compensation

• Jean Castex

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