No less than 34,967 polls, in as many municipalities in France. But only a few dozen hot spots to watch. After a first round marked by an unprecedented abstention, against the background of the coronavirus crisis, discover the first results of the municipal and inter-municipal elections, updated throughout the evening from Ifop-Fiducial estimates for M6 and South Radio.
Read also: Municipal elections 2020: follow our live
● 56% estimated abstention, a record
The coronavirus health crisis has disrupted the democratic process. At 8 p.m. when the polling stations closed, some 56% of registered voters had not gone to the polls, according to initial estimates. This is a drastic increase in abstention compared to 2014, where 36.45% of the electorate had shunned the ballot boxes. Which, already at the time, was a record.
● Perpignan: Aliot (RN) at the head, towards a quadrangular
City of more than 100,000 inhabitants the most coveted by the National Rally (RN), Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales) placed the deputy Lepenist Louis Aliot at the head (36%), before the outgoing LR mayor Jean-Marc Pujol (18.8 %), the EELV-PS candidate Anne Langevine (14.8%) and the LREM leader Romain Grau (12.4%).
● Le Havre: Edouard Philippe on waivers
In Le Havre, Édouard Philippe came out on top of the first round with 43.7% of the vote, according to results covering almost all the polling stations. The Prime Minister has quite comfortably outstripped his communist rival, Jean-Paul Lecoq (35.7%) and the environmentalist Alexis Deck (8.3%), which places him in a relatively good position for the second round. There remains a risk for his camp: the creation of an "anti-Philippe front" in the space between the two towers.
● Besançon: environmentalists in the lead
According to a first estimate, the ecologist Anne Vignot (EELV) would be in the lead with 31.1% of the votes, ahead of Ludovic Fagaut (LR) who would get 24.1%. The city is currently headed by Jean-Louis Fousseret (LREM, ex-PS) who, at 73, was not seeking a 4th term.
● Tourcoing: Gérald Darmanin re-elected in the first round
Head of the list in his stronghold of Tourcoing (North), Gérald Darmanin was re-elected in the first round. The Minister of Action and Public Accounts had been elected with difficulty in 2014, with 600 votes near in a triangular facing the PS and the RN. Facing him, he found this time a left divided into three lists, as well as a candidate for the National Rally.