Strong abstention, failure of the RN, victory of the outgoing: what to remember from the second round of the regional

A woman voting in Liffré in Brittany for the 2nd round of the regional elections in France, this Sunday, June 27, 2021. © David Vincent / AP

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4 min

While the polls announced the RN party in good standing in several regions, it was mainly the outgoing region presidents who were estimated to be elected at 8 p.m.

As for the first round, the abstention for these regional and departmental elections is extremely high around 65%.

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According to estimates at 8 p.m., no region is taken by the far-right Rassemblement national party.

In

Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur

(Paca), one of the most observed regions, the list led by outgoing president Renaud Muselier was in the lead with 56% of the vote against 44% for the RN list led by Thierry Mariani.

In the first round, the RN candidate however led the elections with 36.68%. 

It is a disappointment for the party of the president of RN Marine le Pen, candidate for the presidential election, who hoped to make this ballot a springboard to the Elysee.

Leavers in the lead in all regions

In

Hauts-de-France

, Xavier Bertrand, the right-wing ex-LR candidate is credited with 52% against 26% for Sébastien Chenu's RN list. In his speech at 8 p.m., Xavier Bertrand declared: "

 The National Front has been arrested and we have made it strongly retreat 

". The declared presidential candidate, Xavier Bertrand, said on Sunday he was ready to go to "

 meet all the French 

" after his large victory, according to estimates, in the second round of the regional. In

Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

, outgoing president LR Laurent Wauquiez won with a score of around 55%, according to polls. In the

Grand Est

, it is again the outgoing Jean Rottner who wins the election against three other candidates. In

Île-de-France

, the outgoing ex-LR Valérie Pécresse wins while the left united against her. 

Outgoing PS Marie-Guite Dufay, allied with environmentalists and communists, won in the second round in

Bourgogne-Franche-Comté

with 42.5% of the vote, far ahead of LR candidate Gilles Platret (24.4%).

RN candidate Julien Odoul comes third with 23.7% of the vote, ahead of LREM Denis Thuriot (9.4%).

For his part, the outgoing PS Loïg Chesnais-Girard is the winner in

Brittany

.

But according to estimates, he does not manage to achieve an absolute majority when he had against him four other candidates.

The left also remains in the lead of several regions, notably in the

Center-Val de Loire

with the outgoing François Bonneau, the outgoing Carole Delga in

Occitanie

, Alain Rousset in

New Aquitaine.

. 

The outgoing autonomist president of the

Corsican

executive council

, Gilles Simeoni, won Sunday in the second round of the regional with 39.7% of the vote, ahead of Laurent Marcangeli, the mayor of Ajaccio and head of a union list of the right (32.1%), according to one estimate.

An extremely strong abstention

The record abstention from the first round of regional and departmental was confirmed on the second Sunday, estimated at around 65%.

According to official figures, the participation of some 48 million voters called to the polls on Sunday stood at 5 p.m. at 27.89% in metropolitan France, a point higher than in the first round (26.72%) and in free fall compared to the regional ones in December 2015 (50.54%) and the departmental ones in March 2015 (41.92%).

The only exception is the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region where the duel was tight between the two candidates with a rebound of two participation points in the second round.

► To read also: Regional elections in France: the challenges of the second round

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