Lille (AFP)
The head of the LREM list in Hauts-de-France, Laurent Pietraszewski, called on Sunday to vote in the second round for outgoing president Xavier Bertrand (ex-LR) against the RN, recognizing his elimination at the end of the first round.
Conceding "a score too low" to "stay in the second round", the Secretary of State in charge of pensions launched this appeal because "the Hauts-de-France needs everything except extreme incompetence, extreme indecency, of the extreme right ".
"We must be proud to have kept the democratic debate alive, to have defended our progressive values, even if the score does not live up to our expectations," added Pietraszewski, whose list included four others. ministers, including government heavyweight Eric Dupond-Moretti.
His defeat, he stressed, came "under special conditions: a record abstention which once again underlines how fragile our democracy is".
"This is the main political message sent by voters tonight. Our duty is to hear it, and to act so that there is a democratic leap," he added.
The elimination of LREM consolidates the chances of victory in the second round of Xavier Bertrand, also declared presidential candidate, who collects between 39% and 46.9% of the votes according to estimates, far ahead of his rival of the RN, Sébastien Chenu ( from 22.5% to 24.4%).
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