Young people plan to vote in the next presidential election in France. This is what emerges from an Ipsos survey carried out for the Federation of General Student Associations (Fage) published on Tuesday, February 22. Corn “there is a climate of distrust that is beginning to emerge“says on France Bleu Isère Louison Valer, president of InterAsso Grenoble Alpes, member of Fage.
France Bleu Isère: According to this study, eight out of ten young people plan to vote on April 10th. So basically, young people are interested in politics?
Louison Valer: Yes, but this is an observation to qualify. Admittedly, there are eight out of ten young people who want to vote, but at the same time, only 49% of them are certain to vote. More than one in two young people believe that their concerns are not taken into account in the current campaign. We notice a redundancy and a weariness of hearing the same subjects, be it security, immigration, etc… And so, there is a climate of distrust that is beginning to emerge: 66% of young people believe politicians don’t care enough about our generation. But today, this youth is ready to go to the polls. But on priority themes that will define his choice of vote.
What exactly are these concerns? Are they so different from the older ones? We see in particular that the first subject of concern is purchasing power…
No indeed, it is sometimes not so different from our elders. We are more of an electorate to seduce rather than a population in its own right. Indeed, the question of purchasing power is essential for students. As we have seen, the health crisis has greatly weakened students, the precariousness that was already present has increased with this health crisis.
There were food distributions during the health crisis. It’s always like that ? Are they always under attack?
Food distributions are a little less recurrent because volunteers are harder to get. But we still have a social and solidarity grocery store called L’AGORAé, which operates on Tuesday evening, Wednesday evening and Thursday evening. And the observation is quite glaring: it is the student grocery store that receives the most beneficiaries – we had 700 last year. But the grocery store was designed for 200 people… We saw people queuing two hours before opening because, precisely, they couldn’t afford to go and buy food in the supermarkets.
We also feel a strong concern among students. According to the study 60% of them feel exhausted, nervous. Do you also feel this concern on the Grenoble campus?
Ah yes, we clearly feel it. I myself was a little impacted. We are trying to implement solutions on campus: we have created a helpline for mental health, which is very popular with young people. We therefore also ask in this campaign that the mental health of young people be put on the table.
It is one of the 50 proposals of the FAGE indeed. Are you going to monitor the programs of the candidates, check if they follow your proposals?
Yes, of course, we will monitor them. Afterwards, our goal as the first youth organization is not to bring out a candidate from the youth. We want all the candidates for the presidency of the Republic to take up these issues that affect young people. And so, we will closely follow these advances.
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