Politics: where are Catholics?

A slap to the politics of president François Hollande and a victory of the anti-euro Front National, skilfully headed by Marine Le Pen. But the two most evident results of the local elections in France of May 23rd highlight another figure: high abstention rates at the polls. In fact, the turnout was 64.1%, 2.2% less than the previous local elections of 2008, which had set a negative record. It unquestionably signals citizens’ distancing from politics, and in the gauche it’s an evident sign of the voters’ delusion over Hollande’s presidential mandate in the past two years: it is a possible interpretation of the outcomes of the first round of voting for the local elections in France. On Sunday March 30 voters will go to the polls for the second ballot in some key-cities such as Paris and Marseille.Abstention data. The right wing reportedly gained 46.5% of votes, the left 37.7 and the far right 4.7%. These are the preliminary results released by the Minister of Interiors Manuel Valls, who addressed the question of abstention: “Beyond doubt, it’s a message to policymakers by French citizens. We should reflect on it. All public officials and politicians should listen.”A slap to the president. French sociologist Jean-Louis Schlegel doesn’t beat around the bush. He said that yesterday’s results are “a vote against Socialists” and against Hollande’s policies. “The fact is that to date his politics made no outstanding achievements. There were zero results in terms of employment. And since the socialists sit in government unemployment did nothing but grow. At the same time, taxes increased and hit especially the middle classes, representing the largest constituency of the Socialist Party.” In fact, left-wing constituency registered the highest rate of abstention.” “It appears that in many cities where the left lost a large number of votes, left-wing voters didn’t go to the polls and in all likelihood they will react next Sunday.” Useless denying that it was a success for Marine Le Pen. “She isn’t like her father”, Schlegel said. “She tries to avoid all forms of racist extremism, she faces the issue of migration in terms of security. It’s a recurring theme in her speeches. She is very cautious and presents a “politically correct”, “respectable” extreme right. Another sensitive theme of Marine Le Pen is “Europe, thereby attracting the support of disappointed French citizens. Le Pen proposes to exit Europe and the euro currency. I’m not sure whether people truly support the idea of leaving the euro area, but the fact is that Marine Le Pen is the only candidate that is seeking to exit a system that is no longer supported, that led France to recession. She’s the only one that wants to give a blow to the establishment, and some like the idea.” Appeal to Christians’ commitment. Also for Jérôme Vignon, president of the “Semaines Sociales de France”, the outcomes of the first electoral round are “the result of two converging phenomena: on the one side, a strong mobilization of the right wing parties, on the other a rejection of Hollande’s policies, which caused much disappointment.” This outcome, and notably, the low electoral turnout ,signal “French people’s disaffection for politics” with a warning to Christians. “Christians – Vignon explains – used to be committed in politics in the 60s-70s. Since then, their presence slowly waned. Christians relinquished the political realm and stepped up their commitment in various areas of civil society, for the poor, in Third World countries. But today they are paying a high price: that of enduring weak, rambling politics, stripped of their fundamental values. It is necessary to rekindle political involvement within Christian communities.”Disappointing politics. A similar interpretation was given by François Ernenwein in an op-ed published by the daily “La Croix”: “abstention still reaches record-breaking levels in this first electoral round. This lack of participation confirms that on the occasion of local elections French citizens marked a distance from a disappointing political realm, marked by debates primarily focused on judicial issues. Voters thus punished the left wing in power and its commitment which they evidently considere a disappointment, especially in terms of employment and labour.”