Young people's perception of the consideration of youth in politics in France 2022
The insufficient consideration of their generation, both in politics and during the 2022 election campaign, is a feeling shared by a majority of French young people. Surveyed less than a month before the first round of the presidential elections, more than two-thirds of French people between the ages of 18 and 24 felt that youth was not sufficiently addressed during the campaign, and that in general, politicians are not sufficiently interested in young people and their issues. Even more salient is the fact that three-quarters of them did not feel that young people were well represented in politics.
In fact, the ways to fight abstention and to remobilize the population that are perceived as the most effective are mainly based on a desire for democratic renewal: the first solution mentioned by the French consists in recognizing the blank vote, which until now has been counted but not taken into account, and three-quarters of 18 to 24 year olds support the application of a majority voting system for the presidential election.
A rather distant relation to the vote
Insofar as involvement in political life may depend, among other things, on the feeling of having a place in it, this feeling of not being taken into account or represented may contribute to the detachment of younger French people from voting. While nearly half of the French population between the ages of 25 and 34 abstained from voting in the first round of the presidential elections on April 10, 2022, 42 percent of registered voters under the age of 25 (many of whom were first-time voters) did not go to the polls. And whether it is a national or local election, the youngest generation is the most likely to abstain. In the 2021 regional elections, for instance, less than one in five French people under the age of 35 voted.The challenge of representation
Overall, the French have mixed feelings about the usefulness of voting, and for the vast majority of them, abstention is a sign of a growing gap between the people and elected officials. For many, this phenomenon represents a danger to national representation, and the fact that young people who might abstain do not feel represented by candidates could contribute to this crisis of representation.In fact, the ways to fight abstention and to remobilize the population that are perceived as the most effective are mainly based on a desire for democratic renewal: the first solution mentioned by the French consists in recognizing the blank vote, which until now has been counted but not taken into account, and three-quarters of 18 to 24 year olds support the application of a majority voting system for the presidential election.
