Michel-Édouard Leclerc: “The French Are Overwhelmed by Political Messages That Ignore Their Concrete Needs”

French households are becoming increasingly anxious, Michel-Édouard Leclerc says, as they face technological, professional and environmental changes whose effects they do not fully understand.

“The French are overwhelmed by political messages that do not speak about their concrete needs,” Leclerc told Le Figaro. He listed employment, housing, cars, purchasing power and the future of their children among the issues that matter most to households.

The president of the E.Leclerc centres also pointed to worsening poverty. Since 2020, he said, one million additional people have fallen below the poverty line, bringing the total to 10 million.

Precautionary savings remain high, particularly among younger generations, who feel a sense of malaise or downward mobility and believe they will not receive the same opportunities. Leclerc said he had abandoned plans to run for president but still intended to influence the political debate.

His comments came in an interview about consumer morale after a summer marked by extreme heat and a highly unstable economic and political climate. He argued that presidential candidates were not addressing the everyday pressures shaping how people feel about the country’s future.

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The French are overwhelmed by political messages that do not speak about their concrete needs: employment, housing, cars, purchasing power and the future of their children.