7 out of 10 French people expect politicians to be more transparent about their private lives

Baromètre Odoxa Quatennens

Once a month, Mascaret and its partner Odoxa offer you a political barometer to take the temperature of public opinion. This month, the central theme is the respectability of political staff and the impact of the Quatennens affair. Benjamin Grange and Yves Censi share their analysis of social networks:

The end of the electoral craze: users are now abandoning politicians

All mentions of personalities have returned to a “normal” configuration since the end of the elections. The general drop in volumes signals the end of the period of electoral fervor: people are turning away from national elected officials. It is now on the networks and in the public square that political and regal topics are debated, which are always topical (economy and inflation, energy, security, international, etc.).

Emmanuel Macron dominates the space, RN and Nupes lock themselves in their polemics

With its 3,000,000 mentions and 14,000,000 commitments in France, Emmanuel Macron is clearly ahead of the opposition beachheads. Opponents who have initiated few media offensives in this month of September, more preoccupied with internal affairs.

Significant element: most of the peaks of mentions of the opponents are made in reaction – or even in opposition – that is to say following attacks or polemics of their opponents.

The Quatennens affair enrages Internet users: the “hope-trahison-angst” dynamic is underway

We observed in the previous Odoxa – Mascaret political barometer that the young leaders of the different political parties had benefited from a large peak of interest from the public during the legislative elections. Adrien Quatennens of France Insoumise, re-elected deputy of the North, was one of them.

With more than 300,000 mentions and 1,200,000 (!) engagements on social networks, the “Quatennens affair” is THE polemic of this month of September.

Caught out, he is now paying a high price.

Almost half (46.3%) of the publications and comments on this subject are negative (the others being mostly neutral or in defense)! This is a particularly high rate that reveals the anger of Internet users.

The spectacular increase in the visibility of the name “Quatennens” – multiplied by 10 with the affair – is not a good advertisement, neither for him, nor for his party. It shows that a dynamic of “hope-trahison-anger” has been set in motion among Internet users in general and left-wing sympathizers in particular in the face of what they perceive as a betrayal of the “pact of respectability”.

They feel betrayed both because Quatennens has to be exemplary as an elected official, but also because he and his party have been particularly rigorous for “the others” whenever an affair of morality concerned them.

In short, on social networks, both LFI and Quatennens are getting a taste of their own medicine.