Initially, Marine Le Pen was to spend her electoral Sunday evening commenting with the journalists present at the HQ of the National Rally (RN) in Nanterre on the results of the municipal elections. Finally, the president of the RN contented herself with an official statement where she only mentioned the coronavirus crisis. Not a word on the ballot, except to ensure that "the second round will obviously not take place" but that we should however "take for granted" the victories of the first.
It must be said that the flame party can align a flattering result in the municipalities where it is outgoing. In almost all of its cities, it wins from the first round, allowing the lieutenants to repeat in a loop on the sets that "to try the RN is to adopt it". In Hénin-Beaumont (Pas-de-Calais), stronghold of Marine Le Pen, the mayor Steeve Briois was re-elected triumphantly with 74.21%. In Fréjus, the largest city currently owned by the RN, David Rachline is back on the wire for a second term with 50.60% of the vote. The lawyer Emmanuel Bonnemain, at the head of a centrist citizen list, comes far behind with 18.5%.
Outpaced in many cities of conquest
The scenario of an RN re-election in the first round is repeated in Villers-Cotterêts in the Aisne (53.46%), in Hayange en Moselle (63.14%), in Pontet in the Var (57.20%) or at Beaucaire in the Gard (59.50%). Also note, the mayor of Béziers, Robert Ménard, elected six years ago with the support of the RN announced Sunday evening his re-election with 68.74% of the vote.
VIDEO. Le Pen: "Let's close the borders with the most affected countries"
“This election will be the triumph of outgoing mayors. The mayor is the safe haven ”, we predicted already, more than a week before the vote, in the RN Staff. "The anxiety-provoking context of the epidemic has further favored the legitimist reflex," analyzes a relative of Marine Le Pen. But the news is a double-edged sword for the RN, distanced in many cities of conquest that it had in the viewfinder in Hauts-de-France.
Huge disappointment for example in Denain (North) where the deputy Sébastien Chenu harbored great hopes against the outgoing mayor (PS) Anne-Lise Dufour-Tonini. The city councilor is re-elected in the first round, far ahead of the lepéniste who collects 30.68% of the votes. In Carvin, the socialist Philippe Kemel, whom Marine Le Pen had defeated in the 2017 legislative elections, was widely re-elected, ahead of RN Arnaud de Rigne by almost 25 points. Chess also in Montigny-en-Gohelle, in Méricourt, in Lens, in Calais where appeared in 18th position the elder sister of Marine Le Pen.
The good health of Louis Aliot
Much further to the South, General de La Chesnais certainly manages to tie the mayor (DVG) to Carpentras (Vaucluse) but the candidate for "union of the rights" only comes second in the lands of Marion Maréchal . In Frontignan (Hérault), the RN Gérard Prato is on unfavorable waivers just like Jean-Louis Meizonnet in Vauvert (Gard) even if the gap with the left is reduced there.
In the South, the RN will prefer to retain the good health of Louis Aliot who leads the race at the head with 35.65%, far ahead of the outgoing mayor (LR) Jean-Marc Pujol (18.43%). The outcome of the election will depend on whether or not a republican front is formed with the two candidates EELV and LREM, able to maintain themselves in the second round… if it takes place. "If we win Perpignan, it will be a big media zoom," crosses the fingers of an RN tenor, anxious to forget that the RN is progressing very little outside the cities acquired in 2014. Anyway, Marine Le Pen seems to have already drawn a line under the municipal ones. Sunday evening, she said: "The time is not for politics, the time is for the health war. And on his showdown with Macron for 2022.
Political Newsletter
Every day, the political news seen by Le ParisienI'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to allow you to receive our news and commercial offers. Find out more
Find all the results city by city on the Parisian.