One of the thunderbolts in the second round of the municipal elections came from Marseille: even if it only has a relative majority and the right is still far from admitting defeat, Michèle Rubirola, head of ecological list of a left-wing union known as the Printemps marseillais, won its bet by finishing largely in front of the LR candidate, Martine Vassal, across the city. But the election being done by sector in Marseille, as in Paris and Lyon, Michèle Rubirola must still be dubbed by a municipal council which promises to be very uncertain, however.
It is a cruel setback for the heiress of Jean-Claude Gaudin, who even ended up behind the Marseille Spring candidate Olivia Fortin in her own sector of the city, where her mentor was regularly elected in the first round . Across the second largest city in France, Michèle Rubirola, 63 and a political novice, finished with 38.3% of the vote, or eight points before Martine Vassal. It thus gleaned 42 seats of municipal councilors out of 101, following an election marked by an abstention rate of 64.75% and a campaign weighed down by suspicions of proxy fraud on the LR side.
"The right is no longer able to govern this city"
But Sunday evening, Michèle Rubirola admitted having only obtained a "relative victory", while stressing that the right, arrived behind its movement, was "no longer able to govern the city". "This victory only gives us a relative majority of seats, the fruit of an electoral system by sectors which is a democratic misinterpretation," she said. "It is a relative victory for us but it is a defeat for the right, the right is no longer able to govern this city," she added.
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A week of negotiations
Le Printemps marseillais will have to forge alliances if it hopes to rule the city. Negotiations with opponents will be essential if they want to build a larger majority by the third round: the election of the mayor by the municipal council. "I have not lost, tonight there is no majority in Marseille", but a "deadlock situation", for its part said Martine Vassal, suggesting a week of fierce influence struggle by the time of the first meeting of the new council, probably Friday or Saturday.
Despite everything, the activists of the Printemps de Marseille want to believe in a new way of doing politics. "We will learn by walking. Not everything is taken for granted. The most important thing was to change things. We were abused for 25 years", summarizes a support from Michèle Rubirola at the microphone of Europe 1.