Julian Mischi is research director in sociology at the INRA.
French workers vote for the far-right Rassemblement National more than for other parties, but more often, they don’t vote at all. Rather than laying down roots like the old workers’ parties, Marine Le Pen’s party has exploited the vacuum left by their decline.
The gilets jaunes have put the social ills of rural France at the heart of public debate. These areas aren’t “backward,” they’re suffering from decades of attacks on social welfare and living conditions.
The once mighty French Communist Party is a shell of its former self. What happened to its mass base?