Several lessons can be drawn from the results of the second round of the municipal elections on Sunday evening. There is this green wave of course which swept over several major cities in France. But there is also the failure of the presidential party, unable to conquer new municipalities.
France therefore had a huge green wave in the second round of the municipal elections on Sunday.
Yes, a really impressive push, far beyond even the forecasts. It was enough to see the air flabbergasted by Yannick Jadot, Sunday evening on television sets (and its successive wow) to understand that the Greens themselves had not pushed their hopes so high. The most striking, I believe, is the case of Bordeaux, which is rocking to the left for the first time in 73 years, swept away by a completely unknown candidate, without experience, but with a label that is in keeping with the times.
In Lyon too, the Greens are causing an earthquake.
Yes, with the same thing, a newcomer candidate, who comes to enrich the purse of ecological victories, with Strasbourg, Poitiers, Annecy or Besançon. And what is striking in these results is the inversion of the balance of power within the left. The Greens have, in many places, become the bosses of the left. At the expense of the socialists.
In the cities where the outgoing mayor was socialist, the Greens came to strengthen his majority and secure victory (the most striking example is Paris, of course). But where the left was conquering, it was the Greens who set the tempo. Olivier Faure might say, in his comments on the television sets, that this election marked the birth of a new social-ecological political force, the reverse is true. Today we must speak of a new ecological and social force.
This can foreshadow what will happen in 2022, for the presidential election?
To answer you, you have to look back three years. We were in the aftermath of triumphant legislative elections for La République en Marche, the very young party of the new elected president, Emmanuel Macron. And at the time, we could no longer count (there were so many) the mayors of right and left who sent strong signals to Emmanuel Macron. In three years, everything has changed, and alliances for example between the right and En Marche have only rarely worked.
The mayor of Toulouse barely saved his seat, but in most cases (in Bordeaux, Tours, or Nancy), these alliances were even counterproductive. But what is true at the municipal level will not necessarily be true at the national level. In particular, the heavy (very heavy) defeat of Emmanuel Macron's party certainly cannot be extrapolated to the level of the whole of France.
The Republic in March does not conquer any city.
No, she keeps a handful, but no conquest. Only failures. Basically, his most brilliant success is also his biggest problem. I mean Havre, of course, and the clear victory of Edouard Philippe. A success for the Prime Minister, who should reflect on the Head of State since he conducts his policy.
Except that Edouard Philippe is not a member of La République en Marche. And that Emmanuel Macron had among his reshuffle plans the option of replacing Edouard Philippe at Matignon. A scenario that became more difficult last night. Firing a winner is even more complicated than firing someone who is more popular than you.