Municipal 2020: the Republic on the move seriously leans to the right

On May 28, many members of La République en Marche (LREM) shouted out loud after the announcement of the alliance made by the former Minister of the Interior, Gérard Collomb, with the party candidate Les Républicains (LR), François-Noël Buffet, at the metropolitan area of ​​Lyon. A week later and while all the lists for the second round of the municipal elections were tabled, Tuesday, June 2, it is clear that the alliances between LREM and the right are numerous and clearly visible.

In Strasbourg, the LREM candidate Alain Fontanel, who came second with 19.9% ​​of the vote, behind the EELV candidate Jeanne Barseghian (27.9%), will join forces on June 28 with Jean-Philippe Vetter (LR), who had arrived in fourth position with 18.3%.

>> Read: LREM withdraws the investiture of Gérard Collomb after its merger with the Lyon right

In Bordeaux, "walker" Thomas Cazenave came third in the first round, with 12.7% of the vote, behind outgoing LR mayor Nicolas Florian (34.6%) and the EELV-PS candidate Pierre Hurmic (34.3% ). He will make an alliance in the second round with the candidate Les Républicains.

Why I decided to build a coalition with @ nflorian33. #Bordeaux # Municipales2020 pic.twitter.com/68OKg2PExY

In Clermont-Ferrand, the candidate of La République en Marche, Éric Faidy, third (15.5%) in the first round behind outgoing PS mayor Olivier Bianchi (38.1%) and the candidate Les Républicains Jean-Pierre Brenas (20 , 7%), finalized an alliance with the right.

These three examples are in addition to those of Lyon, or Rouen, Tours or Aurillac. We must also add the cities where agreements had been concluded in the first round to encourage the re-election of an outgoing mayor on the right. This was particularly the case in Toulouse with the support of LREM to LR Jean-Luc Moudenc, in Nice with the support of La République en Marche to mayor LR Christian Estrosi or in Angers with the support of the presidential party to mayor Agir Christophe Béchu.

"We make the difference between the Juppé right and the Wauquiez right"

Questioned Wednesday morning on Franceinfo, the first secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, saw in it "a moment of clarification that was expected". "Everywhere The Republic on the march forms an alliance with The Republicans. It makes sense, moreover, because the Prime Minister came from it. And those who dominate the scene on the side of The Republic on the march are Mr. Darmanin (Minister of Budget ), Mr. Le Maire (Minister of the Economy), who are bringing up proposals that once wore on the right. "

>> To read: Phoning, networks, proxies: the funny campaign of the second round of municipal elections

The paradox of all these alliances is that they go against the recent speeches of Emmanuel Macron, who emphasized ecology and the need to do more social in the months to come. However, in all the cities where La République en Marche has allied with the right, the objective is to beat the candidate supported by Europe Écologie-Les Verts (EELV).

The national secretary of EELV, Julien Bayou, saw there, Tuesday June 2 on Sud Radio, an "anti-ecological front that is created", while his predecessor, David Cormand, affirmed in a tweet that LREM was "being absorbed by LR into anti-climate coalitions".

#LREM being absorbed by #LR in anti-climate coalitions. Including former socialists Collomb and Fontanel ready to do anything to keep power ... The great divide in the times to come is clear: For or against ecology. https://t.co/yrsoFR0XUx

At La République en Marche, we reply that it was the environmentalists who systematically refused the hand extended by the candidates of the presidential party. "We were ready to discuss with everyone, in a logic of project, but the Greens are already projecting in 2022", testifies a close to the leadership of the party, contacted by France 24, who also argues that alliances with the left were also concluded as in Auxerre or Dunkirk.

"As for the right, we differentiate between the right of Alain Juppé, with whom we share ideas, and that of Laurent Wauquiez, with whom we refuse to work, adds this same source. This is what the withdrawals from our investitures in Lyon and Clermont-Ferrand. "

An increasingly sharp fracture between the left and right wings at LREM

But a senior executive of the presidential party, cited by AFP, regrets, however, that an imbalance has appeared during the second-round alliances of the municipalities. "There is still something that is dangerous: even more than losing the elections is losing its coherence", he points out, regretting the lack of ideological backbone of LREM, which had all the trouble during the campaign to define "municipal progressivism".

It is therefore the very foundations of macronism and the famous "and at the same time" that are called into question. While a fracture had already appeared within the majority group of the National Assembly, with the departure of some of its representatives from the left wing, the municipal elections are further proof that La République en Marche is leaning towards right.

>> Read: Municipal 2020: Agnès Buzyn maintains her candidacy in Paris for LREM

This is what denounces the deputy of Val d'Oise, Aurélien Taché, who left LREM last month to found the group Écologie Démocratie Solidarité at the Palais Bourbon, and who recently supported Anne Hidalgo for the City of Paris.

▶ # Municipales2020 - Agnès #Buzyn, high-risk return.

🗣 @Aurelientache, deputy @EDSAssNat, would vote for @Anne_Hidalgo if he had to vote in #Paris: "It is above all a question of political strategy, of consistency in values".

📺 #AudreyAndCo with @audrey_crespo. pic.twitter.com/880V2qHtSq

"There is the need to pursue in Paris an ambitious policy in ecological and social matters around progressive values", he declared on May 27 on LCI. "Today, I do not understand at all what will do people who defended PMA for all, who defended marriage for all, with people of common sense", association born from the challenge of marriage for all . The deputy here refers to the head of the LREM list in the 5th arrondissement, the outgoing mayor Florence Berthout, elected in 2014 with the LR label. The latter, which has just merged its list with that of its former party for the second round, has never hidden its reservations concerning the PMA for all.

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