Drinking a beer together is often the symbol of a simple moment of complicity: exchanging news, sharing anecdotes, remaking the world while sitting at the bar. Whether you’re with friends, on a romantic date or watching a match, you can’t refuse an invitation. But does the magic still work when it comes to toasting with a candidate for mayor of Paris?nnWe put the question to Parisians, and it seems that enthusiasm remains measured.nnEmmanuel Grégoire comes out on top: 46% of Parisians say they’d like to share a beer with him. He is ahead of Rachida Dati (39%) and Pierre-Yves Bournazel (30%). Behind him, Sarah Knafo (28%), Sophia Chikirou (21%) and Thierry Mariani (18%) close the gap.nnIn a face-off between Emmanuel Grégoire and Rachida Dati, the left-wing candidate maintains a slight advantage: 35% would choose to toast with him, against 32% for the right-wing candidate. But a third of Parisians (33%) prefer to decline invitations from both sides of the counter.nnThe duel between Sophia Chikirou and Sarah Knafo is even more telling: here, the big winner is the “neither one nor the other”. 60% of Parisians refuse to share a beer with either of them. The two candidates are tied at 20% each.nnWhile the bistro remains an emblematic venue for debate, politics on the campaign trail is greeted with caution. For 61% of Parisians, the café is a place where they can express their ideas more freely than elsewhere. Almost one in two (48%) even feel that political discussions at the counter reflect general opinion fairly well. And the practice is very real: 70% have already discussed politics in a bar with friends or colleagues, over a third with strangers, 27% with staff, and 18% during organized debates. Once at the bar, the first topic of discussion is national news (45%), followed by social debates (43%), before moving on to local issues.nnBut when the candidates walk through the door, the intentions are less warm: 33% of Parisians see it as electoral opportunism, 29% as media staging. Only 10% think that they are genuinely interested in the concerns of local residents.nnIn short, the bistro remains a place for conviviality and debate. But sharing a beer with a candidate? Parisians raise their glasses… in moderation.
Beer test in Paris
