“The RN will not help you.” In an open letter published on June 14, 2024 on Instagram, Squeezie called on its subscribers to vote in the French early legislative elections, on June 30 and July 7, to block the way for the far right. “A party that advocates hatred, discrimination, and fear of others has never been a solution, and never will be,” wrote the YouTuber. A position that has a cost: since its publication, Squeezie has lost 100,000 subscribers.
On the day of his Instagram post, Squeezie had 19 million subscribers on his YouTube channel; at the time of writing, there are only 18.9 million left. If personalities such as Juliette Armanet, Lucie Lucas (“Clem”) and Marion Cotillard – who herself posted a selfie where she sports a pin dating from 1992 which reads: “Youth FUCKS the Nazional front” – applauded the YouTuber’s initiative, others condemn it. “Using your notoriety to influence the life choices of young people is a shame” or “You convinced me to vote for Jordan Bardella”, we can read in particular in the comments.
Content creator Tibo InShape, who dethroned Squeezie as king of YouTube on May 26, 2024 by exceeding 18.9 million subscribers, seems to be reaping the fruits of his rival’s political commitment since his number of subscribers climbs constantly. His YouTube channel now has 20.1 million. On June 14, he also published a long message on social networks. Without taking sides – although he has often been accused of promoting conservative, even far-right, positions – but by attacking Squeezie without naming him.
“It is not by insulting each other, respectively “faschos” or “gauchiasses”, that this will make things happen. (…) Incidentally, it is good to remember that voting is a free, personal and anonymous right and duty. If you expect a content creator to read the shows for you and urge you to choose a “side,” then you’re mixing things up. You are old enough to vote and therefore to make your own choices in accordance with your convictions, your needs and your beliefs,” he writes.
But some Internet users weigh the progress of Tibo InShape. “He has more subscribers than Squeezie, but the number of views on his videos has nothing to do with it. Squeezie hits 10 million while Tibo barely reaches 1 million. It’s the views that count on YouTube. Tibo remains a dwarf compared to Squeezie,” writes one of them on
Squeezie is not the only influencer to have taken sides, however. Nor the first. The videographer Mister V (6.3 million subscribers on YouTube) published a message on Instagram on June 11, inviting his subscribers to “all go and vote on June 30 and July 7. And of course, not for shitty faps (editor’s note: French far-right activists). On the same date, influencer Lena Situations (4.6 million subscribers on Instagram) responded to a racist message with: “This is why we have to go vote on June 30.”
For Jordan Bardella, expected to become Prime Minister in the event of a victory for the National Rally in the legislative elections, it was too much. In an open letter published on Instagram and addressed “to young people who follow Squeezie (and others)”, he accuses that “multimillionaires responding to the very noble profession of influencer engage “apolitically” against millions of French people, by copying /adhering to the arguments as crude as they are mendacious from La France insoumise”.
