What does the operation of Horizons, Édouard Philippe’s party, to organize a thousand apartment meetings across the country reveal? This initiative can make you smile as it brings to mind the legendary Tupperware meetings, during which the famous airtight boxes were sold. But it would be wrong to dwell on the irony. Because what the supporters of the mayor of Le Havre are looking for these days corresponds to the concern that crosses the entire political spectrum: how to “feel the country” and above all, how to speak to it? For voters to find their way to the polls, candidates must first find their way to voters.
Some rely on social networks, like Jordan Bardella and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who count their subscribers carefully. Others prefer trips across France, such as Xavier Bertrand, who claims to meet the French without the press. Still others consult, more discreetly, experts and researchers, or rely on neighborhood meetings and presence in markets.
But in the age of TikTok and Instagram, the candidates see that they must invent new ways to speak to the heart of the country. An arduous task, as the trust placed in intermediary bodies and institutions is reduced to nothing. So much so that candidates dream of being able to do without journalists to convey their ideas without ever being contradicted or held accountable. But the reconnection between the French and political leaders cannot depend on communication strategies imagined by consulting firms. It must go through a deeper change, that of the fight against the culture of clash, the renunciation of simplism and the development of proposals that take their voters seriously. A democratic emergency.
