Preeti
Jérémie Moualek, a lecturer and researcher, is studying election nights from 1956 to the present, focusing on the term “protest vote” and its association with the far-right Rassemblement National (RN). He argues that the term should no longer be used to explain the RN’s electoral results, as it oversimplifies and misrepresents voter behavior.
During the 2019 European elections, the RN’s success challenged the idea of a protest vote as a simple gesture without sociological or ideological basis. The term has been used less frequently due to the RN’s steady advance and studies undermining this analysis, forcing political and media players to reconsider their approach.
The concept of the protest vote emerged in the 1980s alongside the rise of the Front National (FN, now RN), particularly after the 1984 European elections. Initially used by other political parties to downplay the FN’s growing power, the term became widespread in the media without clear explanation.
Critics argue that the protest vote interpretation is simplistic and disqualifying, as it fails to account for the diversity of voter actions, such as voting for far-right or far-left parties, abstaining, or casting blank votes. Social and political scientists emphasize the complexity of voter behavior and caution against attributing a single meaning to a vote.
Overall, Moualek’s research challenges the use of the protest vote concept in analyzing the RN’s electoral success and highlights the need for a more nuanced understanding of voter behavior in political discourse.
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Source link: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2024/06/16/the-notion-of-protest-vote-tends-to-infantilize-the-voter-to-depoliticize-their-action_6674930_23.html
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