Is it a myth that France has moved to the right politically?
Former president Nicolas Sarkozy recently insisted that France was now politically a right-leaning country, probably more so than it has “ever been”. However, political scientist Vincent Tiberj disputes the widespread notion that there has been a rightwards shift “from the bottom up” in French society. Instead he prefers to point the finger of responsibility for recent voting patterns at media and political elites, against a backdrop of growing political disengagement among citizens. However, as Mediapart's Fabien Escalona writes, it would be unwise for the Left to seize on this as a reassuring counter-narrative.
TheThe rightwards shift of France politically has become a commonplace idea, to the extent that former president Nicolas Sarkozy felt confident in telling the conservative newspaper Le Figaro at the end of August that “France is rightwing, probably more than it has ever been.” This diagnosis was also convenient, as it supported Emmanuel Macron's decision not to give the Left a chance to form a government after the parliamentary elections in July. And this view of a right-leaning country seems to have been confirmed by the changes that have taken place in France's electoral landscape since the end of François Hollande's presidency in 2017.
