France is due to vote in snap elections at the end of the month, and polls show the far-right National Rally could come out on top. Surveys also show that their message is resonating among young voters. DW's Sonia Phalnikar went to find out why.
Category
š
NewsTranscript
00:00Gearing up for snap elections in France.
00:08These activists are with the far-right National Rally.
00:12Today they're in Troyes, a city in the rural east where the party won by a huge margin
00:17in recent European elections.
00:19Across the country, a lot of their support comes from younger voters.
00:23The head of the youth wing, Monsant Lefebvre, thinks he knows why they're striking a chord
00:28in his region.
00:29There are fewer buses to go to school, there are fewer shops close by, fewer bakeries.
00:36Everything is increasingly re-centralized.
00:38People are forced to use their cars.
00:40Prices of fuel and electricity have gone up, especially for students.
00:45The activists explain why they decided to support the far-right.
00:48Earlier, I was with the Green Party, but with the Green Party, there's a lot of greenwashing.
00:58I'm drawn more to the National Rally.
01:00They speak the truth.
01:02They don't make false promises.
01:09Amongst all the parties, it's the National Rally that comes closest to ensuring my security.
01:14For example, when I go out and if I'm followed on the street.
01:18It's sad to say, but it's always by a certain kind of person.
01:22Sometimes they can be French, but often they are not.
01:26It's really about uncontrolled immigration.
01:31Such issues form the backbone of the National Rally's platform.
01:36The party's popular 28-year-old president, Jordan Bardella, is the one turning them into
01:41hot topics on social media.
01:44He's largely credited with mobilizing the youth vote with his snappy videos.
01:51The far-right's messaging has found fertile ground elsewhere in the rural region.
01:56The town of Romy-sur-Seine.
01:59The far-right dominated here as well in the recent European elections, taking nearly 50%
02:05of the vote.
02:07The town has seen better times.
02:09Since the 1980s, the closure of textile factories has led to an estimated 25,000 job losses
02:15in the region.
02:17Critics say the failure by other political parties to connect with voters has contributed
02:21to the rise of the far-right.
02:25We are concerned, but we're not really surprised.
02:28Here we barely have public services, few jobs, dwindling wages and a poverty rate of 24%.
02:35In recent years, we've seen a strong migration of people of North African and Sub-Saharan
02:40origin from the Paris region.
02:43They don't find a lot of jobs, and the national rally here on a local level, as usual, has
02:48profited from stigmatizing the other.
02:52But the union has found a way of fighting back, by fact-checking the national rally.
02:58They have shown how local far-right MPs have often voted in parliament against measures
03:03they claim to support, such as raising the minimum wage or increasing aid for students
03:08and for social housing.
03:12Back in Troyes, the far-right activists have discovered some posters they've just put up
03:16have already been vandalized.
03:18Vincent admits it happens a lot.
03:22That's because of the way we're portrayed by the media and by the left.
03:25People still have this image of the national rally as racist and Nazi.
03:29It's the party's history.
03:30That's why.
03:31Despite this image, the party is gaining momentum, not just here, but all over France, and is
03:39making progress in its efforts to convince voters it's just a normal political party,
03:45despite its radical agenda.