The document advises avoiding “for now” voters ages 18 to 25, single parents and those with lower incomes, all of whom are deemed “more difficult to mobilize.”
It also recommends not trying too hard to woo voters from poorer, multicultural suburbs surrounding major French cities with strong immigrant populations, who are likely to support hard-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon. He announced his campaign earlier this month.
Those internal findings risk reinforcing the image of Glucksmann, the romantic partner of one of France’s most famous journalists and the son of a prominent philosopher, as a member of high society who is out of touch with the middle class.
But Glucksmann’s team downplayed the memo’s significance and stressed that it was merely a “working document.” Campaign strategist Mathieu Lefèvre-Marton, who drafted the memo, said that Glucksmann himself rejected the conclusions about which voters should be avoided, stressing the importance of “speaking to everyone,” including “those who don’t vote for the left.”
Polls show that Glucksmann and Mélenchon are currently the strongest left-wing candidates in the field, though a lot can change between now and the election next spring.
The two are expected to pursue diametrically opposed campaign strategies. Glucksmann is expected to try to win over the moderate left and siphon off centrist voters disenchanted with Macron’s tenure, while Mélenchon believes his unapologetically radical message will drive low-propensity voters — especially young people and those in urban working-class neighborhoods — to the polls.
Mélenchon’s deputies are already jumping on the leaked note.
“[Glucksmann] couldn’t care less about the poor, young people, single mothers, and working-class neighborhoods if they don’t bring him votes,” Paul Vannier, an MP for Mélenchon’s party, France Unbowed, wrote on X.