Paris (AFP)

The right shouted victory Sunday evening of the second round of regional and departmental elections while the National Rally minimized its defeat, citing a "failure of democracy" because of the new record abstention recorded in the polling stations.

"The National Front was stopped and we made it strongly retreat", rejoiced the outgoing president of Hauts-de-France Xavier Bertrand (ex-LR), re-elected against his rival of RN Sébastien Chenu.

"It's a collapse for the National Front," added the president of the Les Républicains (LR) party Christian Jacob on France 2. "For 18 months and our failure in the Europeans, we have not stopped finding the French and they found us in the different communities ".

"We have largely won the municipal elections, we have won the senatorial, partial legislative, departmental, regional: today we are clearly the only force for alternation," he added.

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For the president - reelected - of the Ile-de-France region Valérie Pécresse (ex-LR, Libres!), A "France team of the right and the center" has "emerged in the regions" thanks to this second tower.

"This evening, the extremes have receded sharply in our region because we are leaving them no ground to prosper," said Laurent Wauquiez, outgoing president of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, also reelected.

Hailing a "success" for the right and the center, the LR president of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, in passing addressed a pike to the executive, criticizing a "missed meeting" of LREM with "the territories" and pointing to the 'failure of an "at the same time deadly for democracy".

The mines were much less happy at the National Rally (RN) which relied on its candidate Thierry Mariani (ex-LR now RN) in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur to win the first region in its history one year from the election presidential.

Refusing to speak of failure after the victory of Renaud Muselier (LR) in PACA, the vice-president of RN Jordan Bardella considered that it was above all a "failure of French democracy", in an allusion to abstention level, around 66%.

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Castigating "a disastrous and erratic organization of the polls by the Ministry of the Interior", Marine le Pen was moved by a "historic civic disaffection" which in her eyes constitutes "a major signal sent to the whole class politics and even to all of society ".

This is a "deep crisis of local democracy", added the leader of the far-right party in a statement at the headquarters of the RN in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine).

- "relief" -

The RN's defeat was greeted with "relief" by the rest of the political class, especially in the ranks of the presidential majority.

Admittedly, the first results of the ballot constitute a "disappointment" for the Republic in March, admitted the general delegate of LREM, Stanislas Guerini.

But it is however "a satisfaction" that the National Rally "has decreased", added government spokesman Gabriel Attal on France 2.

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On the left, the leader of rebellious France (LFI) Jean-Luc Mélenchon also expressed his satisfaction and his "relief" at the "heavy defeat suffered by the RN", in the PACA region and "his joy" against the "magnificent result" obtained in Reunion by Huguette Bello "who knew how to reach out to the Communists and the Socialists to obtain the final victory".

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"There are in fact two blocks which emerge strengthened from these elections: there is the right-wing block undoubtedly, but there is also the green and left block and we are basically around 34-35%", underlined of his side the MEP EELV Yannick Jadot on TF1.

Even the Socialist Party, whose First Secretary Olivier Faure was pleased to see the outgoing Socialists being "brilliantly re-elected" in five regions.

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"The best score in France is that of Carole Delga", the outgoing PS president of Occitania widely re-elected in front of the RN candidate and the head of the LR list, he insisted.

"There is a left which is doing better, which is in the process of reclaiming a space. We (the PS, Editor's note) have a duty, that of bringing together all of the left and environmentalists to be able to move towards the election presidential since now everyone has their eyes fixed on the next step ".

© 2021 AFP