A headquarters reduced to the strict minimum in the eleventh arrondissement. A team confined to the four corners of Paris to try to harvest the maximum amount of feedback from the field.
Like every municipal candidate, David Belliard had made special arrangements for this election night. And it started off badly this evening.
A problem with ballots in the twentieth
Around 8:30 p.m., while the counting operations have barely started in the district town halls, the team of the environmental leader learns that in the 20th century, a district on which they have high hopes, a problem of voting risks losing valuable voices.
"It's off to a bad start," sighs a member of the candidate's team. Finally, the arrival around 9 p.m. of the first polls out of the polls, which give the list of David Belliard between 11% and 12%, seems to relieve Parisian environmentalists. With such a result, David Belliard is however far from the 15% in certain polls at the start of the year. "Bonus was given to outgoing mayors in this context of health crisis," comments David Belliard coldly.
"We are progressing compared to 2014"
An analysis contradicted by the scores of environmentalists in Bordeaux, Lyon or Toulouse. The outgoing mayor (PS) Anne Hidalgo she would have siphoned the voices of environmentalists? "The Parisian municipal campaign was still very special with many candidates who claimed to be environmentalists," insists David Belliard. "Despite this, we resisted and we are even progressing compared to 2014 when we had won 8.86% of the vote", underlines Hélène Bracon, campaign director of the elected ecologist.
VIDEO: Yannick Jadot (EELV) calls for postponement of the second round of municipal elections
An argument that environmentalists will not fail to advance during the second round alliance negotiations with the team of Anne Hidalgo. But will these negotiations take place?
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While the postponement of the second round was requested by the environmentalists, the latter decided not to enter into discussions as long as uncertainty hovered. In any case, the teams of the two candidates struggled to find a place to meet to discuss. “The bars are closed, and the hotel we booked has also closed. These municipal elections will have been unexpected ... until the end.