In Toulouse, “the last time was for Mitterrand” – Liberation
2022, journey to the center of abstention
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During the presidential campaign, “Liberation” interviewed groups of French people who chose not to vote or no longer vote. Will they reuse their voter card in April? Third and last episode in the Empalot district, in Toulouse, with the elders who, for the most part, do not understand why so many of their neighbors do not go to vote.
The “Mitterrand generation” with white hair, like Jeanne, 78 years old. Or no hair at all, like 70-year-old José. Or Raoul, 64, who hides his incipient baldness under a cap. A dozen retirees have agreed to discuss, for Release, the next presidential election in the back room of Solidarity Generations which serves as a home for the third (or even fourth) age, on the ground floor of an HLM building in the Toulouse district of Empalot. A short hour of lively debate, between cupcakes and coffee, before lunchtime prepared by the association which has been working since 1989 to fight against the exclusion and isolation of the elderly in this former working-class district undergoing renovation. Jeanne, who has set up her pencil case with her Little Brothers of the Poor pen at the end of the table, opens the ball by declaring herself “shocked” by the posters seen in the neighborhood to encourage “boycott” the elections. “Voter, this is the only action we have left”, she considered.
In her wheelchair, Nelly, 74, approved. Since moving to an apartment adapted to her disability, she no longer goes to the voting booth in person, but trusts her son to vote for her. “On a minus the same opinions”, explains the voter by proxy. José, 70, avoids talking about politics with his family. “It’s always a divisive issue,” he believes, railing against suspicious candidates…