Although France is a founding member of the European Union, surveys show Euroscepticism is on the rise in the nation. In the lead up to the EU elections, RFI looks at what's feeding the disenchantment and what, if anything, can be done to rekindle the flame.
The European project has been fuelled by French men. Jean Monnet and Robert Schumann helped lay the foundations for what would become the EU, Jacques Delors founded the single currency and Giscard d’Estaing, François Mitterrand and incumbent President Emmanuel Macron have all championed Europe and its values of peace, unity and democracy.
But surveys suggest France's love affair with Europe is going through a rocky patch.
The European Commission's 2023 Eurobarometer ranked France bottom of the 27 member states with only a third saying they trusted the EU. It also found the French were the most pessimistic about the EU's future.
A poll published on May 8 showed 46 percent were “worried” about Europe, while another survey showed half were not interested in EU elections.
“Mistrust of the EU is higher in France than our neighbours,” says Laurence de Nervaux, head of the think tank Destin Commun, citing its recent research.
“Only 41 percent of the French consider belonging to EU is a good thing compared to 54 percent of Germans and 61 percent of the Spanish.”
Meanwhile, the number of people saying the EU had a negative impact on their lives went up from 27 percent to 37 percent between 2021 and 2024.
“We see that discontent is growing,” de Nervaux told RFI.
Spectre of Frexit
With mounting discontent, support for the far-right populist National Rally (RN) party is also growing.
Its candidate, the telegenic MEP Jordan Bardella with his 1.2 million followers on TikTok, is polling well ahead of both Macron’s Renaissance party candidate Valérie Hayer and the Socialist Raphael Glucksmann.
According to de Nervaux, more than a third of French voters are in favour of leaving the EU, compared to 24 percent in neighbouring Germany.
While the RN no longer officially supports leaving the EU or abandoning the Euro currency, the spectre of Frexit still looms.
“After the chaos following Brexit in 2020, the top leaders of the National Rally stopped talking about Frexit almost overnight," says Laetitia Langlois from Angers University, who has researched Euroscepticism in the UK.
“But some hardcore supporters are still determined to leave the EU. Some would like to push for a more Europhobic, not just Eurosceptic, discourse on Europe.”
De Nervaux says the RN electorate is the only group where a majority – 56 percent – support Frexit.
“The nationalist fantasy of Frexit remains the marker of far-right culture, even if its leaders deny that today,” she adds.
Listen to a conversation with Laetitia Langlois in the Spotlight on France podcast
Bermuda triangle
Like other populist parties, RN slams the EU as a remote, elite institution that works for the interests of big business, rather than ordinary working people, and facilitates mass immigration.
The EU's institutions are seen by many as an "enormous machine only making norms and regulations," says Langlois.
"The RN takes advantage of this and exaggerates the bureaucratic dimension."
And yet "it does a lot for people’s everyday lives,” she notes, pointing to the EU’s Erasmus student exchange programme and large sums invested in poorer parts of Spain, Italy and pre-Brexit Scotland.
But the complex inner workings of its institutions don't help foster an understanding of and attachment to the EU system.
Even French politicians, accustomed to a very different political system from the EU, are disorientated, says European affairs consultant Yves Bertoncini.
"France's political system under the 5th republic is a presidential monarchy where winner takes all, whereas the European system is more federal, based on the dispersion of power," he told RFI.
"We need to double down on our pedagogy because the institutional triangle – EU Parliament, Commission and European Council – is like a Bermuda triangle for the French. We’re not used to it.”
Poor communication
De Nervaux says France's mistrust of Europe and its institutions is largely down to ignorance – 65 percent of the French say they don’t have a clear vision of the way the EU functions and its policies, compared to 42 percent of Germans.
She blames the higher ignorance largely on French media, which is among those in the bloc covering European issues the least.
The EU hasn't been great at blowing its own whistle either, de Nerveux points out, citing a failure to communicate well on its capacity to make collective decisions such as its Covid vaccination campaign, the post-Covid recovery plan and support for Ukraine.
“When we ask people what Europe has brought them, they talk about the Europe of 20 or 30 years ago – of Schengen and the Euro – but they don’t refer to these recent episodes."
Even if the French are interested in Ukraine, de Nerveux insists they are more preoccupied by domestic issues than geopolitical or international ones.
"Their main preoccupation is purchasing power," she says, adding that they need to be reminded of what Europe brings them in their daily lives.
“There is the mistaken perception that the EU had a negative impact on inflation but the truth is that the Eurozone has played a more protective role in terms of inflation, whereas in the UK [post-Brexit] it exploded.
"And to take a very concrete example, one meal out of four distributed by the Restos du Coeur food charity is financed by the EU.”
Pragmatic and lucid
The picture is not all bleak, even where surveys are concerned.
A recent Ifop poll also found that nearly 60 percent of the French said they were proud to be European.
“Beyond the mistrust, the French have a pragmatic and lucid attachment to Europe,” says de Nevreux.
And in a "dangerous, complex and unstable world," a majority of French people describe their relationship with Europe as “necessary”.
Faced with superpowers China, the US and Russia, Macron’s “vision of building a strong Europe is widely supported by the French,” she says, noting that they "also want Europe to take the lead on climate issues".
There's even a willingness to get to grips with EU institutions says Langlois, underlining the unexpected success of the French TV series Parlement.
The first three series drew in 7 million viewers, with a fourth out soon.
Additionally, Christophe Préault, of the pedagogical All of Europe website, says there's growing interest in European issues like economy, defence and security. Connections to their site have "doubled since January".
He’s calling for more education on the EU.
“Kids are taught about how the 5th Republic works but do we teach how the EU functions? No. And yet it’s where we live and work.”
Get them young, says de Nevreux: “Children should learn the 27 member states like they learn the alphabet.”
