Regional elections in France: Macron and Le Pen fail

Paris | The French still ignored the ballot box on Sunday in the second round of the regional election, marked by the failure of the extreme right of the Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron party and allowed the new dynamic to claim at ten on the left and right. Presidential month.

Nearly two-thirds of the nearly 48 million voters (66.3% as of 1 afternoon estimate) did not speak, which is much lower than last week, indicating a record in elections since the fifth. Republic, in 1958.

Polling stations were closed at 2pm Eastern time.

“I’m coming to vote, but it’s useless,” said Strauss-Kahn’s Hughes Hubert, 66, a retired soccer jersey on his shoulders, and none of the three children moved. “Vote for the presidential election, OK, but for the departmental, we know nothing. What are the candidates going to do? I don’t know.”

Beyond this teaching on French democracy, this second round confirmed the failure of the Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron parties and confirmed the beginnings of traditional parties long established in the local political landscape, allowing the barons to reaffirm the right and left suspense for the 2022 presidential election.

All outgoing regional presidents were also re-elected, with seven appearing as winners on the right and five on the mainland of France on the left.

Marine Le Pen’s extreme right (Ross Assembly National, RN) did not win the only territory he could afford, Provence-Alpes C డిte d’Azur (to the right) (Les Republicans, LR), which has the support of RN for decades to prevent RN from winning the election. Front ”left in tradition.

“Tonight, we will not take a territory,” Marine Le Pen agreed, referring to “a deep crisis in local democracy.” “Equilibrium is key to the coming victories,” she warned of the presidential election in her view.

Macron Party’s “disappointment”

Towards a presidential majority (La Republic en Marche, LREM), the day was also gloomy and, as expected, no region won.

LREM general spokesman Stanislas acknowledged that this was a “disappointment to the presidential majority”.

These two parties have no spatial anchoring with regard to the right or the moderate left, and are affiliated with the extreme left and environmentalists.

These “traditional” parties have disappeared somewhat from the media landscape in recent years, after centrist Emmanuel Macron was elected president in 2017, shaking up both moderate and left-wing voters.

As pollsters predict the Macron / Le Pen final, many of the right-wingers on the right to say they can change the presidential election cards are now blowing up their regional success.

“Everyone now understands that the presidential election is now a three-way match. The two-man match is in the lead,” Javier Bertrand, a former moderate minister, winner of the Hots-de-France region (North) and already a candidate in 2022, told the newspaper. Resonates.

The winner of the Ile-de-France region, Valerie Pecres (right), and the Auvergne-Ron Alps region (center), Laurent Vauquiz (right) also stand out. “A French team has emerged from the right and center. I will do my part,” Ms Peckers warned.

On the other hand, left levers are also prevalent in many areas with alliances between socialists, ecologists (EELV) and insomnia (left). But none of the officials elected on Sunday are in line to contest the presidential election and party leaders will not accept a single candidacy.

“A place is in the process of being recaptured,” said PS Oliver Foure, the national secretary general, who predicted his party would be a “driving force” to “bring all leftists and environmentalists together to move towards a presidential election”.

“Ecology is the only dynamic force”, because his part congratulated EELV’s National Secretary Julian Bay.

This resurgence of the left / right divide, however, needs to be carefully evaluated and nothing is said to be a Macron / Le Pen dual question for the presidential election.

“Traditional parties will benefit from the large territorial network they maintain. Left / right divisions will continue at the local body level, but this has not yet been translated into the national level,” said Jerome St.-Mary, president of PollingWax Polling, which predicted before the polls.