Results of the first round of the French presidential
election show that most young people in France are looking for alternatives to
the current political order.
Results of polling by Ipsos
of the first round of the April elections appear below.
In the first round, Emmanuel Macron was bested by both
Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon among voters under 32 and
attracted less than 25 percent support among voters under 60.
This being France, only Valérie Pécresse from Les Républicans
and Éric
Zemmour offered free
market economic programs. Zemmour focused
on tax cuts while Pécresse planned to cut France’s bloated bureaucracy and regulatory
state.
Macron is a corporatist.
Macron wants more intervention in business with government directing capital
to and providing protectionist measures to politically-favored businesses and
industrial sectors.
LePen is also a protectionist and advocates for expansion of
entitlement spending by reducing the retirement age from 62 to 60. She offers a particularly innovative approach
to taxation by exempting workers below the age of 30 from the income tax. This will allow young people to build wealth,
buy homes and start families.
Mélenchon’s economic program is straight out of Bernie
sanders playbook—more spending, bigger government and more regulation of the
private sector.
Polls show that Macron is ahead of Le Pen in the second
round. Poll show that Macron is favored
to win. That may be the case. However, a macron victory will not bring
about the type of political and economic change that young people in France
long for.
