“A beer with”: at the top of the “beer test”, Philippe, Le Pen and Attal outdistance Macron and Maréchal

Institutionalized in the United States before each election, the “beer test” traditionally makes it possible to measure the degree of sympathy of political figures in public opinion. Thus, after a mandate with very mixed results, this study revealed, in 2004, that 57% of Americans preferred to drink a beer with the outgoing Republican president, George W. Bush, rather than with his Democratic opponent, John Kerry. In France, the Ifop institute carried out a similar survey for CorioLink, the results of which Le Figaro reveals.

A large third of the country (37%) would prefer to toast with Édouard Philippe, who had publicly admitted his weakness for Corona in 2019. In this ranking, the former Macronist prime minister is ahead of Marine Le Pen (35%) by a short margin. head, although the nationalist is the only one to progress since the launch of the test, with an increase of 10 points in five years. As for the very popular Minister of National Education, Gabriel Attal, he made a remarkable entrance onto the podium: he received 34%, at the age of 34.

For his part, Emmanuel Macron shows a clear decline of 16 points compared to 2017, with 28% compared to 44% at the time. The recent video of the President of the Republic swallowing a Corona “dry” in the locker room of Stade Toulousain after the Top 14 final does not seem to have been enough to reverse the trend. Behind the head of state are, finally, the Zemmourist Marion Maréchal (27%), the communist Fabien Roussel (25%), the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire (24%), his colleague from the Interior, Gérald Darmanin (23%), the Insoumis François Ruffin (22%) and the head of government, Élisabeth Borne (21%). The third man in the last presidential election, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, is experiencing a severe fall, now capping at 15%.

In the perspective of a “face-to-face” between personalities, the French decide the match on the right by voting for the boss of Horizons, Édouard Philippe, rather than the LR president of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Laurent Wauquiez, for 37% against 11%, while 52% choose neither. In the Le Pen family, it is the aunt, Marine (27%), who wins over the niece, Marion (16%). Within the government, Gabriel Attal (33%) crushes Gérald Darmanin (9%). Finally, among the Insoumis, François Ruffin (22%) wins against Jean-Luc Mélenchon (12%), while the communist Fabien Roussel (24%) distances the ecologist Sandrine Rousseau (8%).

Asked about the motivations that push them to want to stand up to this or that political leader, 60% of French people say they want to “verify the knowledge” of political leaders about “people’s real lives”. Almost as many (57%) say they seek to understand the vision of these personalities for the future of the country. Among the subjects they would discuss between two sips, three-quarters (73%) would discuss “inflation and the consequences on purchasing power”, far ahead of housing difficulties (32%) and climate change. (29%).

A sign that beer is a powerful social marker, behind which politicians have been running for a long time. In February 1995, while in the running for the presidential election, Jacques Chirac made fun of this cliché in Libération: “Of course I'm on the left: I eat sauerkraut, I drink beer. » At the time, however, the Corrézien was not the last to appear with a “moss” in his hand, to cultivate his proximity to the working classes. Three decades later, the actors have changed, but not the recipe. Elected official from Tourcoing (North), Gérald Darmanin repeatedly repeats that he is a fan of this hoppy drink. Even if it means going so far as to denounce, at the end of 2019, in Paris Match, the absence of “people who drink beer and eat with their fingers” in Emmanuel Macron’s entourage. Absence that he thinks he is the only one who can ward off. Even if public opinion does not give him credit for it.