ÇA VA, LA FRANCE?

France, April 2017

A road trip through France, north to south (more or less), to see how the electorate were holding up in the last week before the first 2017 presidential election round. A journey filled with interviews with campaigners and voters.

Read the article that sums up our trip on the website of RTL Next (in German), or see the website we built to collect the social media bits and blogs.

Recap 7/#cavalafrance for yesterday night: We spent a good 2 hours with Nicolas, Morgan and Quentin, all under 25, who run the youth campaign for #Frontnational in the #Amiens region. They do house calls and distribute the party programs. As the evening fell over the charming village of Cottenchy, we walked up and down the streets as they disposed the leaflets in mailboxes. Why vote #marinelepen? Morgan (23): "She will make sure that our choices will be put in action. Now with the #EU, we can't decide what we want for ourselves - our liberties, our security - and she will make sure that we can." #frexit #presidentielles2017 #frenchelections #europeanunion #politicsontour #electioncampaign #aboutlastnight #roadtovote with @cosima_gill

Een bericht gedeeld door Lisa Dupuy (@lisadupuyreports) op

12/#cavalafrance Beer & talk sustain journos. Like tonight in Donzy. Three patrons in this tabac-presse-bar will vote #FN. Because they think the established politics has long ignored more rural parts of the country, because they want to have more domestic power vs the #EU and because "social policies [eg for immigrants] are great but can only take us so far." Can they predict the nation-wide outcome based on the sentiments in their town? With the abstaining voters and those who are undecided, the elections are more confused than ever. "And those traditional parties, the left, the right -- that doesn't mean anything anymore." #presidentielles2017 #frenchelections #bar #politicsontour #reportersontour #onassignment #talkingpolitics On the screen: the start of the #monacodortmund #championsleague game. #broodenspelen

Een bericht gedeeld door Lisa Dupuy (@lisadupuyreports) op

14/#cavalafrance An afternoon spent with fellow roadtrippers: a team of volunteer campaigners for #EnMarche. They have been crossing the country since February, visiting towns and villages with fewer than 20.000 inhabitants and mostly in rural areas. "To understand why people are driven to vote #FrontNational and to campaign for Emmanuel #Macron and his movement." We met them in St Yrieix la Perche, a picturesque village many more kilometers to the south than we'd figured. When we caught up with them, the volunteers had just done their first tour of the town, talking a little with business owners. Valentin, pictured left: "Entrepeneurs tend to be quite interested in Macrons plans for the economy." #politicsontour #lafrance #tourdefrance #frenchelections2017 #presidentielles2017 with @cosima_gill @rtlaktuell

Een bericht gedeeld door Lisa Dupuy (@lisadupuyreports) op

One week from today, the French cast their vote in the #Macron/#LePen run-off. And one week ago, @cosima_gill and I took our journo-road trip through France to find out what people are expecting, what they need from politics and what their hopes are for the #future. Everyone we spoke to was willing to talk back to us, about politics and politicians - even those who were let down and frustrated. Even those voters who told us they were undecided. And even those citizens who said they would abstain from voting for anyone at all. That's an important conclusion the two of us arrived at after our trip. We also noted that when asked about their one big wish/hope for France (as stated in black on these signs, in German for @rtlaktuell), their answers were based on the big values. Peace and peace of mind, change, growth. The kind of wish people also hold for themselves, personally. 24/#cavalafrance #politicsontour #politics #presidentielles2017 #frenchelections #France #wish #peoplepower #voters #france #democracy

Een bericht gedeeld door Lisa Dupuy (@lisadupuyreports) op