Post-election blues worse than ever before

A study has revealed that pessimism among the French population is at a record high for this period after a change of government.

Published: 3 September 2012 17:08 CEST

Some 68 percent of the population say they feel pessimistic about their future and that of their children, according to a study by the French Institute of Public Opinion, IFOP.

The figure has been steadily increasing over the past year – 12 months ago 66 percent said they were pessimistic. At the beginning of January this year the figure was 65 percent.

A spokesperson for IFOP said: “It’s the first time this worry has been so high at the beginning of a presidential mandate. In August 2002 and August 2007, after the re-election of Jacques Chirac and the election of Nicolas Sarkozy, 34 percent and 50 percent respectively of the population said they were worried for the future of their children.”

The highest percentage of the French feeling the blues came in August 2005 at 70 percent.

Most pessimistic were the over 65s, with 72 percent saying they were worried. Those who voted for the Socialist Party, that of new president Hollande, were not spared either – 58 percent admitted to their pessimism.

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“I don’t believe in the model… which would involve finding third countries on the African continent or elsewhere where we’d send people who arrive on our soil illegally, who don’t come from these countries,” Macron said.

“We’re creating a geopolitics of cynicism which betrays our values and will build new dependencies, and which will prove completely ineffective,” he added in a wide-ranging speech on the future of the European Union at Paris’ Sorbonne University.

British MPs on Tuesday passed a law providing for undocumented asylum seekers to be sent to Rwanda, where their asylum claims would be processed and where they would stay if the claims succeed.

The law is a flagship policy for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government, which badly lags the opposition Labour party in the polls with an election expected within months.

Britain pays Paris to support policing of France’s northern coast, aimed at preventing migrants from setting off for perilous crossings in small boats.

Five people, including one child, were killed in an attempted crossing Tuesday, bringing the toll on the route so far this year to 15 – already higher than the 12 deaths in 2023.

But Macron had warm words for London when he praised the two NATO allies’ bilateral military cooperation, which endured through the contentious years of Britain’s departure from the EU.

“The British are deep natural allies (for France) and the treaties that bind us together… lay a solid foundation,” he said.

“We have to follow them up and strengthen them, because Brexit has not affected this relationship,” Macron added.

The president also said France should seek similar “partnerships” with fellow EU members.