Beyond the shock felt on this side of the Atlantic by the revanchist triumph of a former president indicted for conspiracy against the United States, for having tried to overturn the result of the election there 4 years. The victory of an unrestrained Trump who promises to use the army against his political adversaries, to purge the federal state, to place justice under his direct control. And who plans to submit Ukraine to a Russian peace.
Beyond the economic and geopolitical upheavals to come, some dizzying, the vote of at least 75 million American citizens – this will be roughly Trump's score – considered vote – we dare not say enlightened – not for an unknown person, but for a personality who has crushed public debate for 9 years, and who has governed for 4 years… this vote sends a message to the world and to all Western democracies. So ours.
Are Trumpist voters talking to us?
They do not speak to us directly, they do not care about Europe, refuse distant wars and no longer want their country to behave like a superpower.
But as I said, what happened is not an American exception: as populists around the world draw from the same sources, we must examine the common causes which underlie their electoral success.
First of all, the hatred of the elites, a visceral rejection of the usual leaders, the figures of the system, journalists – let's say it – and everything that can embody a moral left which dictates to citizens their way of living.
The inability of this left to reinvent itself, to make itself heard by the working classes who have abandoned it. This is very clear in last night's vote, which is much more diverse than it seems: if America has once again chosen a far-right president, undeniably far-right, its voters are far from being reduced to this label. To put it simply, Trumpists are not just male white supremacists. We already know that Latinos have largely switched to Trump.
Inflation, immigration. Economic problem and worry or identity panic. Two questions to which the Democratic left, even moderate like Kamala Harris, has not been able to provide an answer.
Another lesson to come from the American vote: the weight of lies, we were talking about it yesterday. Opinion studies will allow us to quantify the convictions forged by Trump's lies, by his media relays, by the fake news amplified by Elon Musk, now the most powerful man in the world. By the overwhelming weight of emotions in access to information, produces network X algorithms.
Seen from France, it will therefore be necessary to consider both the rational and the irrational in this vote.
