The National Rally and La République en Marche are the two big losers in the regional elections, while the left and especially the right come out of the ballot strengthened, but whose disse ...

After the regional ones, is the Macron-Le Pen duel announced for 2022 called into question?

Campaign posters of Emmanuel Macron and Marine le Pen, finalists in the 2017 presidential election. REUTERS / Robert Pratta

Text by: Valérie Gas Follow

3 min

The National Rally and La République en Marche are the two big losers in the regional elections, while the left and especially the right come out of the ballot strengthened, but whose internal dissensions could be a brake on their success.

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On the right and on the left, we want to believe that the regions are reshuffling the cards for 2022 and that a second round of the presidential election between Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron is no longer inevitable. The first to want to enter the match, Xavier Bertrand adopted the presidential posture without transition. And in the majority, some concede that he comes out "

extraordinarily strengthened

" after his easy re-election in Hauts-de-France. Polls are already showing progress.

On the left, too, hope is reborn. Anne Hidalgo continues to prepare, like environmentalists. But we should not draw automatic conclusions from the results of the regional ones. That LREM is unable to exist electorally and the RN to win regions does not prevent Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen from being the natural candidates of their camps for the presidential election. While opposite the bidding war has started (see box below). The regional did not complete the political recomposition promised in 2017 which the Republicans and the PS had paid the price for, but that does not necessarily mean that they have allowed the right or the left to find the means to take revenge in 2022 This election is nevertheless a warning and announces a more open campaign.

■

The war of the left has begun

Aurélien Devernoix

With five metropolitan regions preserved and one conquered overseas, the left preserves its positions and its ambitions.

But these results have again brought to light the dissensions between socialists and environmentalists, shattering

a front union

and relaunching hostilities in view of the presidential election.

It is Olivier Faure who drew the first: "

the Socialists are the most credible to lead the rallies on the left

", estimated Sunday evening the boss of the PS. For him, the regional record is revealing: the five regions led by the Socialists have been kept and those where the ecologists led the union, such as Île-de-France or Pays-de-la-Loire, no. could be conquered. "

A green ceiling

" according to Olivier Faure, which obviously did not really please the environmentalist side where it is recalled that the overall score of the PS is down sharply, while they are progressing.

But the blow is indeed hard for the Greens who hoped to sweep a region to confirm

their dynamics of the European

and municipal

elections

They will now have to digest these defeats before the primary to nominate their presidential candidate.

An uncertain vote where the candidates jostle.

A gloomy atmosphere also among the Insoumis whose rallies did not allow any victory in metropolitan France.

Worse, in New Aquitaine or Occitanie, the outgoing socialists have achieved great success after having explicitly refused any alliance with LFI.

After the regional ones, is the Macron-Le Pen duel announced for 2022 called into question?

After the regional ones, is the Macron-Le Pen duel announced for 2022 called into question?

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