Despite the coronavirus crisis and a very high rate of abstention, the National Rally (RN) managed to keep a number of town halls gleaned from the first round in 2014. As expected, Marine Le Pen's party is also lead race in Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales) and Bruay-la-Buissière (Pas-de-Calais). But there are also many disappointments for the flame party. Le Figaro takes stock.
LIVE - Municipal results 2020: record abstention, doubts about holding the second round
● The cities where the RN is elected in the first round
In the cities conquered in 2014, the RN produced almost a full carton. In Hénin-Beaumont (Pas-de-Calais), Steeve Briois is widely re-elected with 74% of the votes. In Hayange (Moselle), a former steel city, Fabien Engelmann was also re-elected in the first round with 63.14% of the vote.
In Beaucaire (Gard), Julien Sanchez - an executive and spokesperson for the RN - who announced Sunday evening on social networks his re-election in the first round with 59.1% of the vote. In Camaret-sur-Aigues (Vaucluse), Philippe de Beauregard is also re-elected with 70% of the vote, he announced on Twitter. In Fréjus (Var), the largest city conquered by his party, David Rachline was one of the first to announce his re-election with 50.60% of the vote.
Finally in Béziers (Hérault), Robert Ménard, non-inserted candidate but supported by the RN is re-elected in the first round with 68.7% of the votes according to the prefecture.
● Cities where RN comes first
Louis Aliot confirmed the trend of the polls, finishing first in the polls this Sunday. The RN candidate arrived first in the largest city sought by the party, Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales), with 35.65% of the votes. This allows him to hoist himself before the outgoing LR mayor, Jean-Marc Pujol (18.4%), who had been supported by Nicolas Sarkozy. Worryingly, however, this score is close to the one he obtained in 2014 ... However, at the time, Louis Aliot had already come out on top with 34.2% of the votes, but he had finally been beaten by the candidate LR thanks to the withdrawal of the socialist.
In Bruay-la-Buissière, RN RN Ludovic Pajot also won the first round with 38.57% of the vote. This is a high score, in a city that was targeted by the flame party.
In Carpentras (Vaucluse), where General Bertrand de la Chesnais is supported by the RN without being part of it - a strategy assumed by the party -, the candidate qualified for the second round with 30.88% of the votes. However, he finished behind the outgoing mayor of various left, Serge Andrieu, who collected 35.85% of the vote.
● Cities where the RN performs poorly
Despite these good scores in several municipalities, a good number of results appear to be disappointing. Of all the cities that aspired to conquer the RN, Denain (North) is perhaps the one that best illustrates the slap cashed by the party of Marine Le Pen this Sunday evening. In campaign for long months, the deputy Sébastien Chenu will have used his media aura, as his political experience, to win the " poorest town in France ". A first step which was to lead him, next year, to take the head of the RN list at the next regional in Hauts-de-France. Alas, the parliamentarian will not only have missed his bet to come out on top; but he will also have seen his opponent - outgoing PS mayor Anne-Lise Dufour-Tonini - be renewed to everyone's surprise for a second term in the first round, with 57.10% of the vote.
Ditto in Calais (Pas-de-Calais), which was to be a symbolic victory. To the point that, the capital of the Opal Coast, long known for its " jungle " of migrants waiting to cross the Channel, has in recent months become the fixed idea of Marine Le Pen's special adviser, Philippe Olivier. But to win the city owned since 2008 by LR Natacha Bouchart, the MEP has chained the disappointments. To the indocility of a local party official was added the difficult transplant of a young head of the list. A Breton Saint-Cyrien, with a very elitist profile for one of the most social municipalities in France. The entry into the campaign behind him, in the final stretch, of Marie-Caroline Le Pen - older sister of Marine Le Pen - was not enough. The outgoing mayor was re-elected in the first round for a third term.