French political activists and presidential candidates have launched summer election campaigns along the coast, approaching holidaymakers on the beaches of La Baule and Lorient.
With eight months remaining before the first round of the French presidential election, political groups are attempting to turn the summer break into a campaigning opportunity. However, activists face widespread indifference from voters seeking a break from public affairs during their holidays.
On the seafront of La Baule, a popular resort town in the Loire-Atlantique department of western France, members of the campaign group Youth with Édouard Philippe have been canvassing beachgoers. When one activist approached a young man to ask whether Édouard Philippe interested him, the holidaymaker smiled and replied that he was not particularly interested, though he stopped short of closing the door entirely. Another passerby remarked with amusement that he was visiting for the weekend and had not planned to think about politics.
The activists admit that convincing voters on the beach remains a difficult task eight months before the ballot. Victoria Briat-Meurger, who is taking part in the coastal campaign for the Horizons movement, acknowledged that holidaymakers had every right not to want to talk about politics during their vacation and said she understood their reaction. Horizons was founded by Philippe, a former French prime minister who served under President Emmanuel Macron.
Canvassing with summer merchandise in Brittany
Supporters of Gabriel Attal are taking a different approach by traveling from location to location in a van packed with branded summer items. Speaking to a camera team from French broadcaster TF1, one campaigner displayed promotional caps, tote bags, and t-shirts intended for holidaymakers. Attal served as France's prime minister earlier this year and remains one of the most prominent figures in Macron's centrist coalition.
Reactions on the streets of Lorient, a coastal city in the Morbihan department of Brittany, remain mixed. As a young campaigner called out to passersby about the power to act with Gabriel Attal, one pedestrian replied without stopping that he wanted nothing to do with him. However, another man showed more willingness to listen, smiling and suggesting that the summer might be the right moment for lighter, friendlier discussions. He added that political debate should not get too heated, or it would melt his ice cream.
Door to door voter registration in Nantes
Farther inland, activists from the left-wing party La France Insoumise are taking campaign efforts a step further by conducting door-to-door visits in working-class neighborhoods. Their goal is to register local residents in Nantes on the electoral rolls before the upcoming presidential vote. Nantes is the regional capital of Pays de la Loire and a major population center in western France.
One Insoumis campaigner, Agnès, chose to interrupt her own holiday in the region to join the canvassing drive. She explained that politics was an ongoing concern for her, adding that while people might try to think slightly less about their daily problems during the summer, she did not believe those issues vanished. La France Insoumise, led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, routinely focuses its field strategy on boosting voter registration in working-class districts.
Candidate travel and missing opposition
Several presidential contenders are actively participating in summer field operations themselves. François Ruffin has undertaken a campaign trip by hitchhiking, while Marine Tondelier, the national leader of the Green party Les Écologistes, is traveling in an electric van. Attal has proven to be the most active candidate so far, completing at least 15 campaign trips since the start of the summer season.
By contrast, other political parties have kept a low profile or allowed their supporters to enjoy the beach uninterrupted. No activists from the conservative Les Républicains party or the far-right Rassemblement National have been observed campaigning along the coastal routes this summer.
