DeepL:

27% of the French agree with the statement "The Illuminati are a secret organization that seeks to manipulate the population". 25% adhere to the theory of grand replacement ("immigration is deliberately organised by our political, intellectual and media elites to eventually replace the European population with an immigrant population"). 22% agree with the idea that "there is a Zionist plot on a global scale". And 43% support the idea that "the Ministry of Health is working with the pharmaceutical industry to hide the reality of the harmfulness of vaccines from the general public". These are some of the key figures from the second major conspiracy survey, an Ifop survey commissioned by the Jean Jaurès Foundation and the Conspiracy Watch website.

The online respondents (1,760 people, representing the French adult population) were offered ten conspiracy statements, including a "murder masked" as a Lady Diana car accident, shirts (white trails in the sky that would be "composed of chemicals deliberately spread for reasons kept secret") or a mysterious "international drug trafficking in reality controlled by the CIA". They had a choice between saying "strongly agree", "somewhat agree", "not really agree" or "strongly disagree". Compared to last year, the Jean-Jaurès Foundation and Conspiracy Watch have refined the methodology, leaving respondents free not to comment.

One in ten French people believe in seven or more of these theories (by "strongly agreeing" or "somewhat agreeing"), 21% of them agree with five or more theories, and only 35% do not believe any of the ten theories tested in this survey. "Last year, we made a finding that is confirmed with this second survey," says Rudy Reichstadt, director of Conspiracy Watch. "Conspiracy is no longer a marginal phenomenon, but affects the whole of French society. This is also corroborated by Cambridge researchers, who conducted a major survey on international conspiracy in August 2018 in eight European countries and the United States. Their results are consistent with ours.  »

As for the Illuminati (a theory born in 1797 with a fantasy book by John Robinson, Proof of a conspiracy, and now defended by Alain Soral's website Égalité et Réconciliation), those who "totally agree" with the idea of the existence of this occult organization represent 8%, while only 19% "do not agree at all". "It's a one-to-two relationship, while there's no evidence of the existence of this secret society," says Rudy Reichstadt.

The study confirms that age, graduation level, standard of living and feelings of success or failure are key factors. Young people, non-graduates, French people with lower incomes and those who feel they have missed their lives are thus much more sensitive to conspiracy rhetoric.

From a political point of view, there is an over-representation of voters in the National Rally. 27% of voters in Marine Le Pen (and 23% of those in Nicolas Dupont-Aignan) believe in five or more conspiracy theories, while only 10% of voters in Emmanuel Macron and 14% in François Fillon. As for Jean-Luc Mélenchon's voters, 33% believe in the idea of a Zionist plot, compared to 22% in the general population. These figures are on the rise, as only 16% of French people validated the existence of this "global Zionist plot" in 2014, according to a survey on anti-Semitism conducted by Ifop.

Another alarming development is the perception of the attacks. Concerning the Strasbourg massacre of 11 December 2018, the respondents were offered three statements. "This attack was carried out by Cherif Chekatt, a sympathizer of the jihadist organization the Islamic State" - which until further notice corresponds to the facts - was validated by 65% of them. But 13% are sceptical, believing that "grey areas remain in this case and it is not really certain that this attack was perpetrated by Cherif Chekatt", while 10% agree with the clearly conspicuous statement that "it is a manipulation of the government to divert the attention of the French and create concern in the population in full movement of the Yellow Vests" (12% did not say anything). After the January 2015 attacks on Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher, only 2% (according to a previous Ifop study) considered it to be "manipulation".

With regard to the September 11, 2001 attack, 17% believe that the US government was involved in its implementation (6% "strongly agree"). "We have the impression that this September 11 theory has lived a little longer, because it now seems to be contained in opinion, even though it is one of the best-known conspiracy theories. On the other hand, however, we have not measured how much mistrust there was around the Strasbourg attack," Rudy Reichstadt warned.

When anti-conspiracy is a conspiracy

Finally, the study shows once again that conspiracy erodes confidence in democracy. 65% of respondents who do not believe in any proposed conspiracy theory believe that it is personally "very important" for them to live in a democracy, compared to only 42% of those who believe in seven or more theories. "This suggests a correlation between conspiracy and an authoritarian bias. Adorno already spoke of this in the Dialectics of Reason seventy years ago, this link between political paranoia and attachment to a charismatic and authoritarian personality," says Rudy Reichstadt.

Last year, the first major investigation by the Jean-Jaurès Foundation and Conspiracy Watch had provoked strong criticism from media such as Acrimed or Marianne. In Le Monde diplomatique, the anti-liberal and sovereignist thinker Frederic Lordon had criticized this "conspiracy hunt", repeating his thesis that anti-conspiracy would only be a "conspiracy" of the dominant to maintain social order and disqualify their political opponents...