Allan Arnera, 23, can count on two hands the number of people he has told about his voting intentions for this week's European parliamentary elections.
"Being from a family of five, that's already half," the French national, who lives and works in Brussels, told DW.
Like 33% of his French compatriots, according to the latest polls, Arnera plans to vote for the far-right National Rally (RN), led by 28-year-old sitting member of European Parliament Jordan Bardella.
"For me, it boils down to them having France's best interests at heart," Arnera told DW. He agrees with RN's nationalist approach to EU integration, as he does with Bardella's policy of a "double border," which would limit the free movement of migrants within the EU's open Schengen area by reintroducing systematic checks at France's land borders. Arnera, himself a migrant within Europe, feels that EU immigration is too high.
"We've just reached a point where we have so many issues in France, like high unemployment, or the cost of living crisis," he explained.
Young, with an international background and a stable employment in a white-collar job, Arnera is aware he does not fit the typical image of the disenfranchised RN voter. His politics are unpopular with many contemporaries in his social circles. He keeps them quiet.
In the previous EU election in 2019, high youth turnout helped........