Albert Zennou: “The war of words, a new ideological battlefield in the presidential election”

The semantic war will take place. The presidential campaign is being played out in meetings, in the media but also in the area of ​​vocabulary with banned or, on the contrary, imposed words. Latest example: “French people with immigrant backgrounds”. It was enough for Anne-Claire Coudray, on the 8 p.m. news on TF1, to ask Édouard Philippe a question about the riots of October 17 where “French people with immigrant backgrounds” were implicated in the looting for the entire left, from the PS to LFI, to castigate its use, a sign according to them of uninhibited racism and, for Mélenchon, proof of belonging to the extreme right. Another example: Michel Houellebecq prosecuted and indicted for having notably used the expression “great replacement”.

The battle is no longer just between programs or candidates, it now takes place through dictionaries. Vocabulary becomes a tool not only…