Already electric, the tension around the partial legislative election in Val-de-Marne further increased on Sunday evening.
Against a background of massive abstention (only 13% of participants), the socialist candidate, Isabelle Santiago, came first in the first round with 33.7% of the vote.
Second, and far behind her rival (17.4%), the EELV candidate, Sandra Regol, will face her on the second next Sunday.
A 100% left derby.
"The left cannot oppose"
For the PS, the affront is unbearable.
In the name of the rally of the left, the Socialists demand the withdrawal of Sandra Regol for the benefit of Isabelle Santiago.
“
The rule is that with such a gap, the left gathers behind the left candidate in the lead.
Many speak of union but we realize that it is still difficult when it is necessary to act
”, underlines the socialist candidate.
Read also: Haut-Rhin, Seine-Maritime, Yvelines, Réunion ... massive abstention in the first round of partial legislative elections
Omnipresent in the countryside, Luc Carvounas, the former PS deputy who became mayor of Alfortville, set the tone on Sunday evening in front of his town hall.
“The left cannot oppose [in the second round].
There was a loyal primary in the first round, ”
he said a few minutes after the announcement of the results.
"The Socialist Party withdrew responsibility to win the mayor of Marseille, the mayor of Lyon, the mayor of Bordeaux,
" he also stressed, thereby calling on EELV to reciprocate.
He wants
“the Republican withdrawal to take place as quickly as possible”.
"Threats and pressures"
Out of the question for environmentalists.
The blood of Sandra Regol has only made one turn when she heard the words of Luc Carvounas on Sunday evening.
“Republican withdrawal is when there is a risk that the far right, or the right close to the far right, will win.
However, in Val-de-Marne, the left cannot lose in the second round!
We do not take any risk, ”she
says.
"The abstention explodes and we still want to deprive the voters of their choice?",
Continues Sandra Regol who also denounces
"the threats and pressures received from the Socialists" as
soon as the results are announced on Sunday evening.
Monday afternoon, the socialist Luc Carvounas was not mad.
"There has always been withdrawal between left parties in this constituency," he
says.
And asks:
"With 16 points behind, where is the reservoir of Sandra Regol's voice?
Its only way out is to go and collect right-wing voices, ”
he analyzed.
Julien Bayou, the national secretary of EELV, does not really hide it.
"In the municipal elections, some voters, especially on the right, who had not voted for us in the first round wanted to win the ecology in the second," he
recalls.
Some will see it as a call of the foot ...
Whatever the result on Sunday, the episode will leave traces in relations between socialists and environmentalists.
Especially since the fight is likely to intensify in these last days of the campaign.
Executives from both parties should come to the constituency to support their respective candidate ... and no doubt take the opportunity to slip some banana skins to the opponent.
Even if the Greens or the Socialists will win Sunday, the left could well, in the end, be the big loser of this partial legislative ...
