No downtime. Tracting, “limping”*, door-to-door… Jérémie, 32, who has just left National Education, is taking action for rebellious France. Alice, 21, dreams of becoming a school teacher. Joined the National Rally since February, she also leaflets, fills mailboxes, sticks up posters tirelessly. Lola is 28 years old. A criminal lawyer, she pleads throughout France, but it was in Gard where she was born that she decided to take out her PS card. This choice made at the end of summer is not purely sentimental. By establishing herself in the department where the RN made the grand slam in the Legislative elections, she is certain of not “debating with her clone”. Franck Lasalle, a big fan of General de Gaulle, joined Les Républicains in January. Six months later, he found himself serving as a deputy in the Legislative elections. What motivates Gard activists? What is their daily life like? Where do they come from? Around twenty of them confided in Objectif Gard the magazine.
When the RN vote boosts activism
Six out of six. Marine Le Pen's party won all the parliamentary seats in Gard. He explains having registered “800 new members” between June 8 and 30. Conversely, other movements saw their membership increase to counter this party.
Thunderclap. On June 9, the RN placed itself at the head of the European elections with 31.37% of the votes. As soon as the results were revealed, Emmanuel Macron announced the dissolution of the National Assembly. The timer is on. The first round of the Legislative elections is scheduled for three weeks later. Politics invades everything. We talk about it at the office, at the bistro, we argue about it as a family. The participation rate in the second round of the Legislative elections reached 62.96%. The people voted. It's obvious. But have they committed to political parties?
By the numbers
20 %
of French people have confidence in political parties according to the Cevipof confidence barometer published at the beginning of 2024. Associations do better with 65%, as do unions with 40%.
Mobilization for the RN
There are no independent statistics on activism*. But, from Left to Right, everyone admits that election periods are conducive to commitment. Yoann Gillet, RN deputy from Gard, recognizes that his party has experienced an increase in membership for the presidential election in 2022, followed by “a strong rise” just after the 2022 legislative elections. “In 2024, it was the same in the weeks preceding the Europeans, and especially the day after the Europeans where we came in first, dissects the one who is also spokesperson for the party at the national level. Between the evening of June 9 and the end of June, we registered 800 new members in Gard”. According to him, the department has just passed “a historic record with 3,000 members up to date with contributions”. The chosen one observes “a significant rise of new activists active on the ground” and notes that “young people represent around 50%” of their new members. “We have always been a particularly young party, which trusts young people and does not hesitate to give them responsibilities”he summarizes. At the national level, the party is led by Jordan Bardella who has not yet reached the age of 30 and who has a large following on Tik Tok.
Mobilization against the RN
“I'm on social media a lot and a lot of people are going towards the far right, confirms Matéo Massot, 17 years old. I prefer to counterbalance. My great-grandparents fled the Spanish Civil War. They instilled values in my family”. The day before the start of the school year, this final year student joined the PCF with a friend. “There was a very strong mobilization on the Left with the danger of the RN, confirms Denis Lanoy, head of the PC in Nîmes. This encouraged the mobilization of activists who were a little behind”. In Nîmes, the PCF recorded “more than 40 new memberships out of 820 members”.
Among environmentalists, Béatrice Leccia confirms a “strong increase” in members since the last legislative elections. At the LFI level, Nicolas Pellegrini felt “a real desire for action” during the Legislative Elections: “We went from our meetings in Nîmes where there were between 20 and 30 of us every week to more than fifty. » There were “many young people and even very young people”, some of whom came from the neighborhoods and from immigration. “There is a real fear of the RN, he deciphers. Since the dissolution, many people have joined us, especially young people.”
At the Gard PS, Pierre Jaumain has registered around a hundred more members since the start of the year, which makes it possible to reach 550 to 600 members. Some former activists who “had strayed” more than ten years ago wanted to come back. “Gard is a laboratory of the RN and precariousness”describes Nicolas, 39 years old. This director of an association fighting against exclusion, had tried the PS adventure in his thirties, seduced by the universal income supported by Benoît Hamon. He participates in section meetings, meetings, gets involved in towing. The result of his foal in the presidential elections 6.36% is not glorious. In section, we debate statutory questions, currents: “The average age was a solid 60 years old. »
The “increasingly strong polarization between LFI and the far right”, “the maddening precariousness”the “unraveling” caused by Emmanuel Macron’s policies pushes him to return in 2023. He dreams of bringing his expertise to spaces of “nuance and innovation”, far from “the sound and the fury”. Pierre Jaumain believes that the PS-Place publique candidacy around Raphaël Glucksmann for Europeans was a “locomotive”. It also exploded the Public Square movement in the Gard. Alain Boutault, from Place publique, remembers that when he arrived in Nîmes at the beginning of 2022, he discovered “8 or 9 members who were a little lost”. Today it has around 150 members.
Farid, 24 years old, blue jacket, Maryse, yellow green and Cyprien, wearing a Europe t-shirt are towing at the Halles de Nîmes with Valérie Rouverand candidate on the Renaissance list. • © private collection Cyprien Auberge
Local/national difference
The sequence “dissolution-elections-struggle to form a government” Did it have an impact on Renaissance? Valérie Rouverand, head of Emmanuel Macron's party in Gard, indicates that it brings together 350 members and 1,200 supporters. She remembers that during the legislative elections, “there were a lot of volunteers to tow, paste” and ensures that “every week” people join. “It’s incredible what the activists have brought me, she insists. We have a militant force that I will maintain with the upcoming municipal elections.”
Coming fourth in number of seats in the Legislative ballot, the Republicans saw one of their own, Michel Barnier, obtain the role of Prime Minister on September 5. What galvanize the troops? Not really according to Richard Tibérino, head of the party in Gard: “We had 4,000 current members in the years 2006-2007-2008, during the Sarkozy period. In 2023, there should be around 700 of us. Fillon, Pécresse, that weighed us down”. How many are there today exactly? Difficult to say, he retrieved the members file at the end of October. Everything was disrupted because of the departure of Eric Ciotti, the party president, in the heart of the Legislative elections. “A few old militants followed him, he admits. Locally, they are still loyal but, nationally, they are angry with us that we condemned it”. LRs also face an average age of “around 60-80 years”. Clément Stevant, 23, was put in charge of the young Republicans in January: “We have around thirty young people aged between 18 and 30. Every month, I contact the new young people who have joined”specifies the one who was a candidate in the 6th Legislative constituency. He organizes training workshops and meetings with elected officials.
Seduce young people
Cyprien Auberge recognizes that at Renaissance, the members are between 20 and 80 years old but that “the most represented group is retirees”. But he assures that this is evolving and that a good dozen young workers have come to join them in the two campaigns, European and Legislative.
Nicolas, returned to the PS after seven years of absence, notes that the age pyramid has become younger. Pierre Jaumain estimates the average age at around 50 and admits that “the contribution of young people is too modest”. Are the young people who came to lend a hand to LFI during the elections still there? “People stayed. Some have the feeling of duty accomplished because the RN did not win”replies Nicolas Pellegrini. The appointment of Michel Barnier motivated some to mobilize even more, to go door to door to demand the dismissal of the president. But Nicolas Pellegrini recognizes that “the least motivated have received a hammer blow” and he fears a “democratic crisis”.
The last few months have disconcerted the Right
Thierry Collet, retired railway executive, has 15 years of activism. He joined in 2006 behind Nicolas Sarkozy. “Sarko has deeply disappointed me. I went to the presidential election with Zemmour to bang my fist on the table.” He didn't follow up: “There were some very good people, others who I didn't like. » “Fully for the union of the Right”, he would like to get involved but “no party suits him”.
*The numbers of members were provided by each of the parties requested. LFI is not able to provide the number of members who have paid their subscription because it is not a political party, but a movement where no membership is paid.
