Jean-Luc Mélenchon is the presidential candidate of the political party "Front de Gauche" ("Unsubmissive France"). This party was founded in February 2016, and has a left-wing populist ideology. What makes the candidate so interesting is his use of the latest technologies. Currently, he owns a YouTube channel with 228 000 subscribers (https://www.youtube.com/user/PlaceauPeuple). To give you an idea of what this represents, Francois Fillon, head of the right wing party, has 4 608 subscribers. This makes him the most subscribed political runner in France. His channel is increasingly popular (only 40 000 subscribers in October 2016). This is a graph showing the additional views and subscribers he gets per months:
In his videos, Mélanchon encourages viewers to subscribe, and like his content. Here is en extract for his one of his videos five days ago (subtitled in English):
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| Youtube channel statistic for PlaceauPeuple (Melanchon) on SocialBlade Total additional views per month Total additional subs per month |
His campaign director, Manuel Bompard, describes the advantage of the medium:
It's a medium where we can share our opinions, with a framework that is not biased to journalistic treatment. [...] For us, it has never been a gadget to be popular, but rather a tool that offers a lot more opportunities to do politics. (Leloup, 2016)
Sources:
https://qz.com/903417/french-presidential-candidate-jean-luc-melenchon-kicked-off-his-campaign-by-hologram/
http://www.lepoint.fr/presidentielle/l-hologramme-bluffant-de-jean-luc-melenchon-05-02-2017-2102605_3121.php
http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2016/12/28/le-candidat-melenchon-creve-l-ecran-sur-youtube_5054714_823448.html
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