He is the candidate to have collected the largest number of votes from voters of the Muslim faith in the first round of the French presidential election. Pen, the leader of La France insoumise (LFI, radical left), Jean-Luc Mélenchon – accused of “Islamo-leftist” by some of his opponents -, was approved on April 10 by 69% of Muslim voters , according to an Ifop poll carried out for La Croix among a sample of 4,000 people. reverse evolution of that observed with Emmanuel Macron, who fell with this electorate from 24% in the previous election to 14% this year, according to an Ifop survey for Le Figaro and the Jean Jaurès Foundation.
In a country marked over the past decade by a series of terrorist attacks; where the French are divided on the meaning to be given to the cultural and legal norm of secularism in the context of liberal globalization and multiculturalism; and while certain political currents are taking advantage of this crisis to promote a fantasy conception of citizenship, the question of Islam has dominated French public debate for years. In these circumstances, identity has, unsurprisingly, imposed itself as one of the key themes of the electoral campaign. And even seems to have been exacerbated, thanks to the rhetoric of the far right and the arrival of polemicist Eric Zemmour in the presidential race. Wearing the Islamic veil and the burkini in the public space, ritual slaughter, closing of mosques considered radical, warnings once morest the “Islamist danger” and “separatism”; Islam and Muslims have unleashed passions during this election period.
“There were two times. Islam was omnipresent with the arrival of Eric Zemmour, notes Hakim El Karoui, Senior Fellow at the Institut Montaigne. And then the subject gradually disappeared or was relegated to the second plan from January, before coming back at the very end of the campaign with the question of the veil”. Again on Wednesday evening, the banning of the Islamic headscarf on the public highway was among the subjects discussed during the televised face-to-face between the two finalists in the presidential election, the outgoing head of state Emmanuel Macron and the candidate of the National Rally. (RN, far-right) Marine Le Pen, organized four days before the second round vote.
No distinction between a Muslim and a non-Muslim
Formerly a secularist and eater of priests, the LFI candidate, who in 2017 called the veil a “sign of submission” and declared that he did not see where “God would be interested in a rag on the head” has since made a turn therefore, defender today of an open and inclusive secularism. Displaying himself, for example, proudly at the demonstration once morest Islamophobia which was held in November 2019 in Paris, he managed to attract the support of Muslim voters who consider themselves wronged, even stigmatized, under the mandate of Macron. and in the speeches of the extreme right.
And this, especially since apart from Jean-Luc Mélenchon, no candidate of weight has emerged within the traditional left. “Muslims generally vote on the left because they consider that the right is once morest them, explains Hakim El Karoui. While Mélenchon was the useful vote on the left during this election, he took advantage of the useful Muslim vote. At the same time, Macron n was not credited with much openness on the Muslim side”.
A statement that resonates with Yassine, 20, a psychology student, of Moroccan origin living in Ile-de-France. While he had slipped Mélenchon’s ballot into the ballot box in the first round, he is now hesitating between abstaining and voting for the outgoing president on Sunday. “The most important thing for me is not that Jean-Luc Mélenchon defends Islam and Muslims, but that he makes no distinction between a Muslim and a non-Muslim, which during Macron’s assessment, I I never felt”, assures the young man, for whom the social report of the outgoing president was very disappointing.
Pinned down by some of the French Muslim citizens, Emmanuel Macron has in particular been the victim of criticism following his bill once morest separatism, promulgated last August, in the wake of his displayed strategy to fight once morest radical Islam. A text that had been proposed following the stabbing and beheading by a Chechen terrorist of French history and geography professor Samuel Paty, ten days following showing two caricatures of Muhammad taken from Charlie Hebdo during a course on freedom of expression.
Accused by some voters of maintaining an ambiguous discourse vis-à-vis the Muslim community, Emmanuel Macron would have been overwhelmed on his right by part of his government. “His speech has always been tempered. He was careful to remember what secularism is, that is to say the neutrality of the State and not the fight for a religion, and preferred use the term “separatism” rather than “Islamism”, explains Hakim El Karoui. But his ministers had positions that were much more to the right than him: Darmanin, Schiappa, Blancher in particular”. Committed to La République en Marche (LREM) since 2016, Mehmet, a 30-year-old of Turkish origin living in the Paris region, regrets in this regard that “ministers have expressed their personal position” on the question. If he specifies that religion is not the main criterion in his vote, the young man wishes to point out that he “will never vote for someone who stigmatizes or insults (his) belief”, and intends to campaign , as in the first round, for Emmanuel Macron.
Undecided on his attitude on Sunday
“Everything in France gives the impression that to be Muslim is to be public enemy number 1 of part of the people of this country”, castigates Can-Antan, a high school student of Turkish origin. Residing in Sevran, in Seine-Saint-Denis, he claims to have voted for Jean-Luc Mélenchon “out of conviction”. Arriving well ahead of the first round in 37 out of 40 cities in the Seine-Saint Denis department, Jean-Luc Mélenchon notably collected nearly 55% of the votes in Sevran. If until now, the difference between the average participation rate and that of working-class neighborhoods was more marked, the Insoumis candidate seems to have succeeded in convincing former abstainers to support him. “While being the only one to hold a very clear speech on the defense of Muslims, Jean-Luc Mélenchon made a very good campaign vis-à-vis young people and plowed the working-class neighborhoods, which no one else did”, continues Hakim El Karoui.
Coming from a modest background, Can-Atan confides that social issues played as much as religion in his vote. However, Emmanuel Macron appears to him as a man living “in his little ivory tower, surrounded by his elites and who gives the impression of despising us”. The future, under the outgoing president, as under the far-right candidate, scares him. Undecided regarding his attitude on Sunday, Can-Atan said he was simply disappointed.
If she had also voted in the first round for Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Folla, a septuagenarian of Algerian origin living in Paris and who likes to say that the candidate “is married to an Algerian”, will turn to Emmanuel Macron on Sunday faced with the danger of the rise to power of the extreme right.
Executing what the candidate Marine Le Pen had said “on the right of the soil, dual nationals, national priority for work, the fact that it is the native French who will have priority at work”, Folla however takes a different speech regarding wearing the veil. “The women who wear it, let them wear it, but for me they have smeared France. I want us to respect the place where we live”. While she considers herself integrated in France, the elderly woman says that this is not enough in the eyes of many French people. “In everyday life, in the metro, the bus, the shops, I see a lot of misplaced looks. I’m like them, I wear jeans, short clothes. But that’s not enough in times like this, the facies is still there”.
“Forced vaccination”
Coming from a minority category of Muslims who favored the far right, Adel *, 24, a psychology degree student and store employee alongside his studies, living in a village near Montpellier, had voted for Marine Le Pen April 10. And is once once more preparing to make this choice on Sunday. This Frenchman of Algerian origin and of Muslim faith affirms that apart from the question of the veil, which he wishes to see included in a citizens’ initiative referendum, “his program is correct and benevolent concerning France and Islam”.
The student, who says he only eats one meal a day and waits in line at food banks to survive, says he is “thrown by the throat” by the rising prices of gas, food and energy. But other issues, such as the question of the vaccine, seem to have been right in his choice. Defending himself to be “antivax”, Adel however denounces “the forced vaccination or carried out by blackmail as has does Emmanuel Macron”. And does not hesitate to affirm that the president “is leading us towards a war once morest Russia”. While the candidate LREM has supported the Ukrainians since the end of February, his opponent has been strongly criticized for his affinity with the Kremlin and in particular for a loan contracted in 2015 with a Russian bank close to power.
*Name has been changed
He is the candidate to have collected the largest number of votes from Muslim voters in the first round of the French presidential election. Arrived in third position in the general classification (21.95% of the vote), closely following Marine Le Pen, the leader of La France insoumise (LFI, radical left), Jean-Luc Mélenchon – taxed as…
