9:02 p.m., Emmanuel Macron announces to the French the dissolution of the National Assembly and the calling of new elections on June 30 and July 7. A few minutes later, content creator Léna Mahfouf opens Instagram, puts on her Lena Situations costume, and adds in story its 4.6 million subscribers to return to the polls. It’s all there, the dates of the first and second rounds, a link to register on the electoral lists, accompanied by an encouraging message: “It’s very easy and you don’t need your voter card.” When you wake up, new story : “I know it’s annoying to wake up on a Sunday during the holidays but it’s SO important that young people go and vote! We have real power to change our future.”
In the meantime, other influencers have followed suit. Followed by 2 million people on Instagram, Paola Locatelli launches the same precept to her community. “Vote and tell your friends to go vote.” With a freedom of tone that Lena Situations did not dare to use: “And not for the fascists!!!!”. The tone echoes the speeches of Sally, a content creator who got into the habit during the European elections of deciphering political and international news.
In a video of just under four minutes, concocted and posted the same evening as the dissolution, the 27-year-old woman warns her followers : “If the National Rally (RN) comes out on top MLP could be named Prime Minister of France so we will have to vote because the voters of the RN and the far right in general vote, they are not abstentionists, they are people who systematically vote in every election.” An assertion that needs to be qualified since supporters of the radical right (RN, Reconquête, Debout la France) made up the majority of abstentionists for the last European elections: 18% compared to 11% for the radical left (LFI, PCF, NPA, Lutte worker), according to an Ipsos survey commissioned by The world. But regardless of the untruths, the message got through, and was heard by 5.4 million people, almost five times more than a show like Daily which brings together an average of 1.33 million viewers each evening.
Influencers stand up against the “extreme right”
Block the far right. The word passes from one influencer to another. At the start of the week, the platforms were flooded with messages encouraging young people to mobilize “not to let the RN win”. The climax was reached five days later when Squeezie put pen to paper in an open letter published on his social networks on Friday June 14. The Internet star with 19 million subscribers on YouTube who, she says, never “wanted […] talk about politics and get into the party game”, is now dabbling in it, perhaps without imagining that its community would melt by a hundred thousand subscribers in just a few hours. No matter, the situation is serious , and then “firmly opposing an extreme ideology which advocates hatred and discrimination goes beyond any political position”, he defends himself.
In his message, the 28-year-old young man said in particular that he regretted the trivialization of the flame party “while history, even recent, has already shown us the dangers and serious consequences of the arrival of a party of extreme right in power. And to remind his community, made up mainly of young people, that the ancestor of the RN, the National Front, was created “by, among others, those nostalgic for the Vichy regime, admirers of Nazi Germany and even by former SS”.
A few hours later, Jordan Bardella responded to the videographer, using the stylistic codes of his publication. Thus, the candidate for the post of Prime Minister mocks and targets Squeezie’s heritage: “For several hours, multimillionaires responding to the very noble profession of influencers have engaged ‘politically’ against millions of French people copying/pasting the arguments […] of La France insoumise.”
Social networks, a space for redemonization of the RN?
The fact remains that these positions can be enough to put off voters who are hesitant to vote for the National Front party. “These words bother the RN in its desire to broaden its electorate,” explains Véronique Reille-Soult, president of Backbone Consulting, which specializes in crisis management and opinion analysis. Thus, social networks and their actors could undermine the normalization work undertaken by the party co-founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen in the early 1970s. “This mobilization of influencers against the far right is not good news for the National Rally because it scratches its image that it has been trying to smooth out for about ten years,” froths the author of The Ultimate Power. The Truth About the Impact of Social Media (Deer, 2023).
Conversely, the “more left-wing” sensibility of influencers constitutes a “real advantage” for the New Popular Front (NFP). “It’s definitely a bonus for us,” concedes Bastien Parisot, the “digital man” of La France insoumise. Especially since these influencers, not being activists and not addressing a fixed audience, are a way for the left-wing coalition to reach voters who are not necessarily sympathizers, or even abstainers.
“Beyond their calls to vote for us or against the far right, these influencers help to counterbalance the efforts of a guy like Cyril Hanouna who is paid by a far-right boss to spread far-right ideas in the minds of young people, and thus to have a strike force as powerful as that of the fascists,” adds an LFI executive. Especially since the pressure exerted by civil society and by politicians is such that it is increasingly complicated for influencers not to take a position. “The sheep effect is not to be neglected. When Lena Situations, followed by nearly 5 million followers, takes a stand against the far right, it’s difficult to choose the opposing camp”, explains Alexis Duvernoy, CEO of 18H08, an influencer marketing agency.
Influencers, game changers in the elections?
However, if “digital influencers” – those who have built up a reputation based on their presence on social networks – are followed by several hundred thousand or even several million people, “the real reach of their message is difficult to quantify”, they qualify among the Ecologists. Véronique Reille-Soult confirms: “Just as the effectiveness of classic militant actions such as the distribution of leaflets for example is difficult to quantify, that of the words of influencers is just as difficult to quantify.”
One thing is certain: a Squeezie may well be followed by 19 million subscribers, but it will not change the course of an election. According to Véronique Reille-Soult, “the influence of content creators on the political and societal level remains very marginal, and only has an impact on voters who hesitate between several parties”. However, according to an Ifop survey for Le Figaro88% of French people saying they would vote for a frontist candidate in the legislative elections say they are certain of their choice, compared to, for example, 76% of voters in the presidential camp…
Paying influencers? “Never”
All the more reason not to “waste thousands of euros”, and cross the line of illegality by signing contracts with influencers. Every day has its share of controversies. The next one took place over several days: certain political groups allegedly offered content creators remuneration in exchange for publications in their favor. In a video, influencer Jeremstar reveals that a party promised him a fee of 15,000 euros in exchange for a publication on Instagram and “three stories“, one of which involves filming your choice in the voting booth.
Suspicion quickly turned to La France insoumise (LFI). Because a few hours earlier, reality TV star Maeva Ghennam, followed by 3.2 million people, filmed herself with the rebellious outgoing MP Sébastien Delogu, “the big boss”, according to the influencer’s words. The same one who had, a week after the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel, insinuated that the Jewish state had “let it happen so that there would be reprisals […] and that they [NDLR : les Israéliens] kill even more Palestinians.”
Sitting at a restaurant in the Phocaean city alongside Maeva Ghennam, the Insoumis sounds the alarm: “The extreme right is at the gates of power.” The next day, the same man swears never to have paid the influencer for this video. At L’Express, LFI confirms. Unsurprisingly, the opposing parties also plead exemplarity and integrity. And do not forget to point the finger at each other. The climate is one of suspicion. Paying influencers in the middle of a campaign? “You have to be really stupid because it’s illegal,” criticizes an environmentalist. While a big shot from the Zemmourist clan slips in: “In any case, I admit that I would very much like to know…”
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