This article aims to provide a reminder of the usefulness of a Rokkanian interpretative structure, while not applying it in an orthodox manner to the French case. It first adopts an unconventional point of view as it attempts to observe the transformations on the margin of the French party system in order to identify the cleavages operating there. It then attempts to renew this approach by placing cleavages at the heart of the analysis of individual politicization dynamics, an approach that is rarely followed. This displacement and renewal only confirm the relevance of the notion of cleavage, which remains essential in order not only to understand the transformations of society and the French political system, but beyond this, the current deadlocks in which these two types of processes now find themselves.