Candidate Health

source: Le Figaro
author: Pauline Fréour
translation : doxa-louise

The health status of candiates to the French presidency is a divise question in France

An exclusive survey for client Odoxa-Le Figaro-France Inter shows very contrasted opinions about the expected transparency from Presidential candidates with respect to their health.

French electors are divided about the necessity for a presidential candidate to be transparent on health, yet also admit that knowing about a serious illness would limit the attractivenness of a candidate, according to an Odoxa survey done in partnership with le Figaro and France Inter and published this Thursday.

For 50 % of those surveyed, ‘It is normal to expect total transparency from candidates about their health’ because the choice of a President ‘is too serious a matter to risk electing someone who is sick’. Men are more represented in this group (59%).

The respondents are almost as many (49%) to think the contrary as ‘ the health of each individual is a private matter’, according to this Odoxa survey. Noteworthy, the more a person progresses in age, the more he/she will believe that health is a private matter: while 66% of those 18-24 are for transaprency, this is down to 30% for those older than 65.

The French are also of differing opinion in their judgements of behavior from past Presidents. With respect to Georges Pompidou and François Mitterrand, both of whom had kept hidden a serious illness from their fellow citizens (blood cancer for the one, prostrate cancer for the other), 52% think these were wrong, and 47% would defend their right to silence.

Nonetheless, two out of three French voters admit they would think twice about voting for someone if they knew that person was gravely ill.

(Survey of 999 French adults representative of the population).