Europe 1 with AFP 3:44 p.m., April 20, 2022, modified at 3:47 p.m., April 20, 2022

Fourteen left-wing mayors of Seine-Saint-Denis, as well as the president of the department, called for a vote for Emmanuel Macron, believing that with Marine le Pen the inhabitants of the department "will be the first victims of discrimination", in a tribune published Wednesday on the Huffington Post website.

"We, elected mayors of the left of Seine-Saint-Denis, warn of the risks of abstention in the second round of the presidential election. We call on the voters of our cities to go to the polls to avoid the worst", write the 14 mayors from all sides of the left (PS, PCF, EELV, various left) in this column co-written with the president of the department, the socialist Stéphane Troussel.

Mélenchon widely acclaimed in the first round

Seine-Saint-Denis has an abstention rate for the first round of the presidential election of 30.22%, the highest in metropolitan France against 26.31% nationally.

Voters overwhelmingly voted for LFI boss Jean-Luc Mélenchon (49.09%) ahead of outgoing President Emmanuel Macron (20.27%) and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen (11.88%).

The elected officials of the department believe that if "the policy led by Emmanuel Macron has been a source of suffering and anger among an ever larger part of the population (...) Emmanuel Macron, it is not Marine Le Pen".

"With Marine Le Pen President of the Republic, it would be division, the promotion of a stunted French identity", they believe.

"Marine Le Pen is an enemy of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron a political adversary"

For the mayor of Saint-Denis Mathieu Hanotin (PS) or Bobigny Abdel Sadi (PCF) "Marine Le Pen is an enemy of the Republic, while Emmanuel Macron is a political adversary, against whom we will have to build an opposition".

They also denounce "also the imposture of Marine Le Pen who, under a social veneer of circumstance, plans to weaken social protection, to reinforce inequalities through an unfair tax system, or to exempt the inheritances of the richest".

According to them, "Sunday April 24, the only way to be certain that Marine Le Pen is not elected is to use the Emmanuel Macron ballot", conclude the elected representatives of the left of the department.