Secret memo advises French center-left MEP to avoid poor voters in presidential run – POLITICO
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 …
