Kaye said that in France, over the past three years, a whopping 75 percent of OKCupid respondents said they would prefer to date someone who shares their political outlook, compared to 56 percent in the U.S. Elsewhere in Europe, the figures were 73 percent in Spain and 67 in Germany.
That could also explain why France, where the legacy center parties have been all but wiped off the political map, is the only EU country with a dating app targeting supporters of a single camp. The pitch of Droite au coeur, a right-wing dating platform, is to “connect women and men proud of our country, and sharing the same values.”
It’s not just the apps highlighting and promoting a separation between romance and politics. In Brussels, the NGO Fossil Free Politics held a Valentine’s Day event called “Never Kissed a Lobbyist” based on the British slogan “Never kissed a Tory,” used by politicians and opponents of the Conservative Party.
Easier said than done
Can you keep politics out of the bedroom?
That’s what Georgia, a Brussels-based professional in her twenties, tried to do in her previous long-term relationship. Georgia (not her real name) went as far as to call for a moratorium during the 2020 U.S. presidential election that saw Joe Biden take on Donald Trump.
That’s because there would be tension or arguments each time her then-boyfriend, who at the time was working for a far-right member of the European Parliament, would say something in support of the right-wing firebrand. “For me it was so personal, whereas he only saw it from a distance,” explained Georgia, who’s half-American.
