As in this municipality of 2,500 inhabitants, the Le Pen wave swept over rurality during the presidential election: it imposed itself in more than half of French municipalities, particularly in those with less than 1,000 inhabitants (57.19%). .

"Of course I wanted to stop. Of course I wondered what's the point of working hard, of not devoting my time to my family and my grandchildren", testifies to AFP Mr. Gros, mayor for 14 years of La Roquebrussanne, where the candidate of the National Rally obtained 64% of the votes in the second round.

"I did not sleep in the night from Sunday to Monday. And then 48 hours later, we tell ourselves that there are still great things to do for the town and for its inhabitants despite everything", explains the elected who refrained from giving voting instructions, without hiding his preference for Emmanuel Macron in the second round.

"Afterwards, I realized that this result was not a disavowal for the mayor, but for the political class that governs us," he tempers.

Traditionally, rural mayors are not affiliated with a party, refuse to grant their sponsorship to a candidate and give even fewer voting instructions so as not to find themselves at odds with their constituents.

Supporters of the National Rally during a campaign visit, on March 19, 2022, of their party's presidential candidate Marine Le Pen to Piffonds, a village in Yonne which voted for her by nearly 59% in the second round. GUILLAUME SOUVANT AFP/Archives

"I believe that a large majority of rural elected officials, even a very large one, is not in a register to support a Le Pen-type candidacy," said Michel Fournier, president of the Association of Rural Mayors, to AFP. de France (AMRF), whose Vosges village of Voivres supported the far-right candidate with 70%.

"We cannot learn from a local election on a national one", explains this mayor since 1989 who achieved his best score during the last municipal elections in 2020. "At the local level, voters choose people who represent the proximity Conversely, they express the feeling of forgetfulness on the part of the State "during the presidential election, he observes.

Proximity

In the neighboring department of Haute-Saône, where Marine Le Pen also came out on top, Jean-Paul Carteret, mayor of Lavoncourt, a town of 350 inhabitants, admits having breathed a sigh of relief when he discovered on Sunday evening that his town had voted for Emmanuel Macron at 52.51%.

"I am a Republican and I have already wondered if I would stay as mayor if one day there was a huge gap in the other direction", explains the elected official, looking for a doctor like his counterpart from La Roquebrussane.

He is pleased to have a Maison France Services in his municipality, which allows its citizens to carry out their administrative procedures close to their homes.

"It is fundamental, otherwise my village is dying," he explains, lamenting that these houses and the rural agenda set up under Emmanuel Macron's first five-year term were not highlighted more during the campaign. .

The village of Puget-Théniers, in the Alpes-Maritimes, where RN candidate Marine Le Pen won more than 66% of the votes in the second round of the presidential election, photographed on April 28, 2017 Yann COATSALIOU AFP / Archives

In Burgundy, in the north of the Côte d'Or department, Loup Bommier made the opposite choice, to respond to an electorate who "slid to the right".

This former LR has become a fervent supporter of the Reconquest party!

by Eric Zemmour, denouncing the abandonment of the rural world.

Mayor of Gurgy-le-Château, a town of 50 inhabitants where Marine Le Pen reached 62.74%, he believes that rural mayors "are between two chairs today".

According to him, many do not dare to take the step of showing support for the far right because the "mayor must count on everyone today and therefore does not want to split in his municipal council. At the same time, he must work with the decision-makers who are at the prefecture", he specifies.

Faced with this radical push, Michel Gros calls on him not to give up and sends two messages to the State for the five-year term which is beginning: "help us and trust us".

© 2022 AFP