What lessons learned from an election taking place during the coronavirus crisis? While France entered a phase of partial containment on Sunday morning, with other measures potentially applied in the coming days, the municipal ballot dear to the French was marked by several highlights. Europe 1 has selected five.
The enormous impact of the coronavirus
This is the disruptive element of an unprecedented ballot: the coronavirus weighed heavily on participation. With a record abstention estimated between 53.5% and 56%, the French deserted the polling stations on Sunday during the first round, organized as best they could in a country shut down by the coronavirus pandemic. Among the some 47.7 million voters called to elect their mayor, less than half will have finally slipped a ballot in the ballot box, in a general surreal atmosphere after the government decreed Saturday evening the closure of all " public places not essential to the life of the country ".
>> Find all the election results in your municipality here
This low turnout prompted many politicians to request a postponement of the second round, which would have a definite impact on this first round. From Marine Le Pen for the National Rally to Yannick Jadot for Europe Ecologie-Les Verts, the opposition is asking governments to postpone the poll, while the number of cases could explode by next Sunday. The Minister of Health Olivier Véran clarified that the decision to hold or postpone the second round would be taken "probably Tuesday" by the executive, based on the recommendations of the Scientific Council.
Darmanin elected, Philippe pushed into the second round
No less than ten ministers were involved in these municipal elections, with three head of lists and seven members of lists led by other personalities. In Le Havre, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe is pushed to a second round, with 43% of the votes, against 34% for his communist opponent Jean-Paul Lecoq. In Tourcoing, the Minister of Action and Public Accounts Gérald Darmanin was elected in the first round, when he had hardly won the election with a triangular in 2014.
>> READ ALSO - The results of the candidate ministers
Several satisfactions to the RN
Still called the National Front in 2014, the National Rally had at the time conquered a dozen cities, mainly in the south-east of France. On Sunday, Marine Le Pen's party can boast of having kept the town of Fréjus in the Var (with David Rachline), that of Hénin-Beaumont in the Pas-de-Calais (with Steeve Briois) and that of Beaucaire in the Gard (with Julien Sanchez).
RN deputy from the Pyrénées-Orientales, Louis Aliot, came in first in Perpignan, a city now governed by LR Jean-Marc Pujol. On the other hand, the National Rally failed to conquer the town hall of Denain, in the North, which the deputy and close to Marine Le Pen Sébastien Chenu sought.
Disappointment at LREM ...
What if La République en Marche was paradoxically the party that lost the most with this first round, when the political party was not born during the last municipal elections? Sunday evening, the LREM candidates did not appear able to remove a large city. In Paris, a city on which the presidential party was betting a lot, the former Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn came in third position (18%), far behind outgoing PS mayor Anne Hidalgo (30%) and behind candidate LR Rachida Dati (22%).
In other big cities of the country, La République en Marche looked more like a kingmaker than a real favorite. In Lyon, the LREM candidate Yann Cucherat also came in third, while the outgoing Gérard Collomb was a candidate in the election of the metropolis. Symbol of the party's hopes, the Marseille candidate Yvon Berland finished in fifth position, with 7.6%.
... And EELV continues its momentum
After its good score at last year's Europeans (13.5%), Europe Ecologie-Les Verts confirms its good electoral health, with several positive results on Sunday evening. In Grenoble, the only EELV mayor of a big city, Eric Piolle, enters the second round in favorable ballot, with 44.6% of the votes. In the city of Lyon, with 29%, Grégory Doucet outdistanced his rivals LR Etienne Blanc and LREM Yann Cucherat.
But environmentalists also recorded a strong push in Bordeaux, Strasbourg or Besançon, where the candidates stamped EELV are in the lead, sometimes creating surprise. In Rennes (25%), Lille (23.5%) Nantes (19%), they also assert themselves as more than additional forces for outgoing mayors PS Nathalie Appéré (32%), Martine Aubry (30% ) and Johanna Rolland (32%).