Link: https://www.france24.com/en/france/20260207-france-how-bar-tabac-closures-are-fuelling-le-pen-far-right-pubs

France’s iconic bars-tabacs are closing in droves, stripping communities of a key social lifeline and influencing their politics, according to a study that links the decline of neighbourhood bars with the rise in support for the far-right National Rally.

Analysing electoral data between 2002 and 2022, his study found that the RN vote rose by an extra 1.3%-3.6% in districts that had recently lost a bar-tabac, with the biggest increase occurring in rural areas already stripped of other venues for socialisation.

Is the loss of third spaces, pubs or bars-tabacs etc., related to rightward shifts in voting behaviour, in France, UK, Canada...

When people gather in person to talk, they can't control the discourse. People agree more in person, and are more empathetic.

The government is corrupt
And we're on so many drugs
With the radio on and the curtains drawn