Municipalities in France: a vague environmentalist, a record abstention and a setback for LREM

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A record abstention and an unprecedented green wave: the second round of municipal elections on Sunday proved to be out of the ordinary, also offering a comfortable re-election to Edouard Philippe in Le Havre and the taking of Perpignan at the National Rally.

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Three months after a first round already upset by the coronavirus crisis, this second round was again marked by a participation rate at half mast, between 40% and 41% according to estimates, against 62.1% in 2014. Despite precautions exceptional sanitary facilities (wearing a mandatory mask in polling stations, hydroalcoholic gel) and the ebb of the epidemic, a large majority of the 16.5 million voters called to vote in 4,820 communes shunned the voting booths.

A disaffection of the ballot boxes which sounds like “a form of cold insurrection”, according to the rebellious chief Jean-Luc Mélenchon and which aroused the “concern” of Emmanuel Macron, for whom this abstention is “not very good news ", According to the Elysée Palace.

The head of state, however, called his Prime Minister to congratulate him on his "great victory" in Le Havre, where Mr. Philippe obtained nearly 59% of the vote. The two heads of the executive will see "a little time alone" on Monday.

On the strength of his success, could Mr. Philippe be comforted in his position when a major government reshuffle is looming?

According to a Harris interactive survey for TF1, LCI and RTL Sunday evening, a majority of French people (55%) want him to remain Prime Minister and 59% want EELV ministers in the government in the event of a reshuffle.

Big cities go green

Emmanuel Macron should specify, in the coming days, his stated intention to "reinvent himself" for the last two years of his mandate. And from Monday morning, he receives at the Elysée the members of the Citizen's Convention on the climate to which he intends to bring "strong responses" and "up to the challenges and expectations", the Elysée informed the AFP.

What bounce on the ecological theme, while the big cities were adorned with green Sunday evening.

After a hopeful first round, EELV was targeting several major cities, including Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Strasbourg and Lille. And the green wave has turned into a breaking wave.

While waiting for Marseilles, where the environmental candidate Michèle Rubirola at the head of a left-wing coalition was given a big winner according to two first estimates, the Greens have done a double blow in Lyon: Bruno Bernard won the metropolis there, seat of true power, and Grégory Doucet the city, defeating Yann Cucherat, foal of the outgoing mayor Gérard Collomb.

The Greens were also able to claim victory in Strasbourg, with Jeanne Barseghian, and in Bordeaux, with Pierre Hurmic who beat the outgoing LR mayor Nicolas Florian, supported by LREM. A small earthquake after 73 years of right mayor elections on the banks of the Garonne.

In the northern capital on the other hand, the outgoing mayor PS Martine Aubry ended up winning by a hair against the green candidate Stéphane Baly, at the end of a thriller.

Other big cities - Besançon, Tours Poitiers, Annecy ... - have fallen into the hands of the Greens, who have long served as an auxiliary force but assert themselves as the first to the left before the next elections.

Hidalgo in a position of strength

Unlike other major cities, uncertainty was low in Paris, where outgoing Anne Hidalgo (PS) contained its EELV partners in the first round by endorsing a resolutely green program itself. With around 50% of the votes according to first estimates, it is far ahead of its competitors LR Rachida Dati and LREM Agnès Buzyn.

Emmanuel Macron's main adversary at the national level, the National Rally won Perpignan, 120,000 inhabitants. By defeating the outgoing LR mayor Jean-Marc Pujol with 53.1 to 54% of the votes according to estimates, Louis Aliot gives back to the party of Marine Le Pen, who also won Bruay-la-Bussière (Pas-de-Calais) and Moissac (Tarn-et-Garonne) controls its first city of more than 100,000 inhabitants since 1995 and Toulon.

"  It is not only a symbolic victory, it is a real trigger, because we will also be able to demonstrate that we are capable of managing large communities,  " said Le Pen.

Very weakened at the national level, the Socialist Party and The Republicans were counting on these elections to rebuild their health locally.

The PS has therefore retained Paris, Lille, Le Mans, Clermont-Ferrand and should keep orders from Rennes and Nantes. As a bonus, the PS delighted Nancy, where Mathieu Klein wins against the outgoing radical Hénart, Montpellier, with Mickaël Delafosse and Saint-Denis, stronghold of the PCF, with Mathieu Hanotin.

The Republicans confirmed their establishment by winning in the first round many of the cities with more than 9,000 inhabitants they controlled. Sunday, they saw Jean-Luc Moudenc reappointed at the head of Toulouse, like Christian Estrosi in Nice.

But a defeat of Martine Vassal in Marseille, which the right has held for 25 years, would have an enormous symbolic significance.

Among other results, François Bayrou, boss of the Modem, was re-elected in Pau. Little comfort for the majority as the ballot turned into a fiasco for La République en Marche, incapable of capturing the smallest city.

The municipal councilors, elected for six years, will then meet from Friday 3 to Sunday 5 July to elect the mayors and their assistants.

(With AFP )

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• France
• Environment
• 2020 municipal elections

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