At the end of the first round of the presidential election, do the results of Anne Hidalgo for the Socialist Party (1.7%) and Valérie Pécresse for Les Républicains (4.8%) sign the end of traditional political parties? ? We put the question to Dominique Andolfatto, political scientist at the University of Burgundy.
We asked Dominique Andolfatto, who is a university professor in Political Science at the University of Burgundy.
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The Republicans scored 5.1% with Valérie Pécresse in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, and Anne Hidalgo for the Socialist Party obtained 1.8%.
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Dominique Andolfatto: “There is a paradox. The historical parties, whether at local, regional or municipal level have resisted quite well. For example, in all the local elections for 5 years, the Republic En Marche has tried to establish itself and did not succeed.”
DA: “The historic parties are, without doubt, victims of the professionalization of politics. They have succeeded in bringing out of their ranks personalities who have been able to establish themselves in the local territory, who are often recognized and do a rather appreciated. Personalities often re-elected. On the other hand, there is a certain inability to bring out from their ranks a great leader, someone who would have a certain charisma, to gain height. There is no longer the ability to bring out from their ranks a personality with a national dimension.”
DA: “No. The analysis is a bit short. In fact, the presidential election reflected the inability to bring out a leadership. They have personal quarrels, that’s what this election revealed. On the other hand , they are still there in the territories.
For the presidential election, voters must recognize themselves in a leader, a personality who will carry their project. There there was not, neither on the side of the PS, nor on the side of the Republicans, this capacity to embody.
Moreover, having chosen too Parisian personalities, at the PS as at LR, was bad choices. The primaries, too, are quite counterproductive.”
DA: “So yes, you have to have a ‘flagship’, but also you have to have frigates around this vessel. The historical parties don’t have this flagship, they are torn, scattered. These are parties that are Territorial interests have sort of anesthetized the party nationally. “
DA: “If we can’t yet speak of the death of the historic parties, we still have to wait for the legislative elections. That’s when we’ll see if there is no longer a Les Républicains group. there was already only a fairly thin socialist group, so there we can decide at the national level.
During the 2017 legislative elections, the PS had chosen the local because of the prohibition of the accumulation of mandates. Because administering a city, even of modest size, is undoubtedly more profitable from all points of view, not only in cash: symbolically, you have a task to accomplish which is much clearer than that of a deputy. But that made the situation worse. The collapse of the PS cannot therefore be explained simply by the explosion of the Macron meteor.
On the Republican side, perhaps the incumbents are quite popular, they are in constituencies anchored on the right, it will perhaps be easier for them to maintain themselves. They are already established. Whereas for the PS, everything has to be rebuilt.
DA: “We are witnessing the end of the mass party, where members had to follow a line. But also a depoliticization of society, in which people are only interested in politics at election time. moment, the political offer becomes a consumer product.We can also note a certain lack of innovation in the historical parties.
It is also necessary to make the political offer attractive. Eric Zemmour, for example, showed that without experience, you could still get a score.
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