Faced with the election of Trump, these Provençals are prey to political anxiety

Tuesday November 5, Aurélie*, 65, had a very bad evening. The fault lies with a general meeting of co-owners in his residence in the 8th arrondissement of Marseille. Expected and necessary work could not be voted on, due to failure to find common ground… Like an echo of the American vote. “When I got home, I told myself that I wasn't going to listen to the news with the American election looming. I thought, 'All we need is Trump to be elected.' It was too much for the evening.”

And his intuition was correct. “I suspected it, I can't say I'm surprised. Today, I feel worried… and a little resigned.“A resignation that rhymes with helplessness.”Either way, there's nothing we can do“, she adds. At Alexandra, 32, in the 11th arrondissement of Marseille, the concern is more marked. “It's been absolute anxiety since this morning. It's going to be excruciating on every level. The first thing I think of is the conflicts, in Palestine, in Ukraine, but also the rights of women, racial minorities, immigrants, ultra-liberalism and its consequences which we know are dramatic on all these people. . I really told myself that this world was rotten. It is even more and more so. When you think the worst is over, you get even worse afterwards.”

“A hangover even worse than for the legislative elections because we didn’t vote”

Catherine Grangeard, psychoanalyst, is one of the mental health specialists who are warning in France about the consequences of anxiety linked to the political context.