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Record abstention and an unprecedented green wave: the second of the municipal elections was out of the ordinary on Sunday. 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.
In Le Havre, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe won the day, with almost 59% of the vote. In the capital, Anne Hidalgo, allied with EELV, emerged victorious from the triangular with almost 50% of the votes, far ahead of the candidate LR Rachida Dati (around 32%), and the LREM candidate Agnès Buzyn (between 13.7 and 16%). The "republican front" did not work in Perpignan, where the RN candidate Louis Aliot won with 53.1 to 54% of the vote.
The three things to remember:
- Environmentalists win victories in several major cities: Marseille, Lyon (city and metropolis), Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Besançon, Nancy or Tours
- Prime Minister Edouard Philippe was elected in Le Havre, with almost 59% of the vote. During the campaign, he indicated that as long as he was in Matignon, he would not run the city
- Turnout has been historically low, between 40% and 41% according to estimates (62.1% in 2014), after 44.3% in the first round, on March 15
A "green wave" sweeps across France
After the Europeans in 2019, environmentalists recorded a new electoral success, with victories in several major cities in France. In Marseille, the candidate Michèle Rubirola (Printemps marseillais) rocked the city held by Jean-Claude Gaudin since 1995. In Bordeaux, Pierre Hurmic took the city to the right by defeating Nicolas Florian. In Lyon, Grégory Doucet clearly beat the LR candidate and Gérard Collomb's foal, Yann Cucherat. Environmentalists also impose themselves in Strasbourg: Jeanne Barseghian is far ahead of her LREM adversary, Alain Fontanel.
EELV MEP Yannick Jadot will comment on this winning streak Monday morning at Sonia Mabrouk's microphone on Europe 1.
A historical abstention against the background of coronavirus
Among the 16.5 million voters called to vote in 4,820 municipalities for the second round of municipal elections, many are those who shunned the ballot. The participation rate is estimated between 40% and 41%, against 62.1% in 2014. This historic abstention is part of the health crisis linked to the epidemic of coronavirus, which has slowed down voters, despite strengthened health measures.
Emmanuel Macron "expressed concern over the low turnout in municipal elections", which is "not very good news," said the Elysee Palace on Sunday evening. For Jean-Luc Mélenchon, this record rate of abstention is the symbol of a "civic strike" and of a "cold insurrection against all the institutions of the country". Adrien Quatennens, guest of the special edition of Europe 1, also estimated that this evening marks above all the people's disinterest in this election. "What worries us is the considerable abstention (60%), a sign of the agony of a Fifth Republic ending."
"Disappointment" for La République en Marche
No conquest and many setbacks: the Republic on the march suffered a severe defeat on Sunday. Largely beaten in Paris and Lille, nonexistent in certain big cities like Marseille and Bordeaux, the presidential party did not really succeed in its local anchoring operation, four years after its birth and three years after its accession to power. Government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye expressed the majority's "disappointment", which sometimes recorded scores "extremely disappointing" because of its "divisions" during these municipal elections.
In Paris, Agnès Buzyn, only arriving in third position, did not manage to obtain enough votes to become a councilor for Paris. And if Edouard Philippe was reelected without difficulty in Le Havre, the Prime Minister always refused to take his card at LREM ...
Philippe best placed to "reinvent France", poll finds
Another good news for Édouard Philippe: comfortably re-elected on Sunday, the Prime Minister also came out on top of an Ifop survey for Europe 1 and La Tribune , on Monday, on personalities who inspire confidence to "reinvent France". 45% of respondents trust him for this task, one point more than his former Minister of Ecology, Nicolas Hulot. The controversial professor Didier Raoult, highly publicized during the coronavirus crisis, is third with 42%. Emmanuel Macron comes in ninth position: around a third of French people (32%) trust him to "reinvent France", a country he has run for three years.