French politicians are increasingly turning to social media as the 2017 presidential race heats up, with YouTube being the latest frontier explored by rival camps, reports FRANCE 24, which asked French political vlogger Jean Massiet to grade the performances.
France’s key election is fast approaching, with the first round of the poll scheduled for April 23rd. More than a dozen candidates are expected to join the race, each trying to stand out in the crowded field.
The radical-left politician Jean Luc-Mélenchon and the Eurosceptic leader Nicolas Dupont-Aignan were among the first French presidential hopefuls to build support for their campaigns on YouTube.
Far-right politician Florian Philippot last week also launched a dedicated channel on the video-sharing platform, vowing to give online audiences “a backstage pass” to candidate Marine Le Pen’s presidential campaign.
Philippot, who is widely credited with modernising and legitimatising Le Pen’s anti-immigration Front National party, was the subject of massive ridicule on social media platforms as soon as his first video was uploaded.
“The backdrop is overdone, he doesn’t come across as natural, and his coffee cup is empty,” the YouTube vlogger Jean Massiet told FRANCE 24, explaining where the far-right politician’s YouTube debut went wrong.
Massiet, 28, has attracted an enviable following as one of the few French political observers on YouTube. On his channel “Accropolis” he comments on parliamentary sessions, rising political stars and the main issues of the presidential race.
In 2015 he launched Accropolis – the double C is intentional and meant to suggest the channel is for French politics “addicts” (which translates as "accro" in French) – and has since watched numerous politicians join the YouTube bandwagon.
Philippot, a political surrogate for Le Pen, decided to host his first YouTube video from the cafeteria of Marine's campaign headquarters. The scenery includes a canary-yellow table, a vintage fridge, a fake petrol pump and a coffee machine that was apparently broken.
Anticipating the criticism, Philippot was the first to remark that the décor was more suitable for a 1980s high-school sitcom. Sipping from a mug that's obviously empty, he explained future videos would show the inner workings of the campaign and feature special guests.
“YouTubers are usually people who are not invited on television, which is not the case with Philippot,” Massiet remarked, admitting he was surprised the far-right politician, a regular on France’s news talk-show circuit, had chosen to launch his own channel. “This detail did not go unnoticed by regular YouTube users who blasted [Philippot] for wandering into their territory.”
While many people gave the video a thumbs-down, it still garnered wide attention, claiming hundreds-of-thousands of views in just a few days. At least in this regard, Philippot’s foray into YouTube appears to have been a success.
In terms of views, the leftist candidate Mélenchon is easily leading the pack, even if recent opinion polls show he would claim only around 13 percent of votes in the first-round. Since November, Mélenchon – who represents his own Left Party and the French Communist Party in the presidential race – has uploaded more than a dozen “Week in Review” videos, each surpassing more than 100,000 views.
“He’s improved a lot,” said the vlogger Massiet. “At the beginning his videos were very ‘last-century’, he used very traditional political language. But little by little, he has started sharing his doubts and opening up more personally to his followers, and it’s starting to pay off.”
The backdrop of Mélenchon’s videos change constantly. An old plant or a campaign poster hastily tacked on a wall serve as the only props. “He’s the candidate who has best adopted the YouTube culture. Sparse decoration, no make-up, simple lighting, an interview from the couch. These are the codes Youtubers use to convey realness, because we’re done with the overproduced TV of our parents’ generation,” Massiet said.
The online video host noted that Mélenchon had also understood the importance of interacting with his online community, who in some ways replace the journalists of the past. “Real YouTubers listen, reply, ask for comments and adapt their programmes based on that feedback,” Massiet said, praising Mélenchon for his regular “Frequently Asked Questions” uploads.
Candidates from France’s main left-wing presidential primary are running very traditional political campaigns, so far mostly ignoring the social media platforms like YouTube to reach out to voters.
Arnaud Montebourg, a protectionist candidate among France’s ruling Socialists, had only uploaded a few videos from past speeches. Furthermore, in an effort to be consistent with his calls to buy products and services “Made in France”, he has chosen YouTube’s French competitor – Daily Motion – as the host platform for his online videos. This choice has saved him from being called a hypocrite, but has also drastically limited his reach to a few-dozen channel subscribers.