François de Rugy, who arrived on Sunday June 20 in 5th position at the head of the LREM list in the Pays de la Loire region, acknowledged
“a big disappointment for the presidential majority”
and announced that he was holding on for the second round of the regional ones.
François de Rugy obtained 11.1% of the vote, according to an initial estimate from the Ipsos / Sopra Steria polling institute, behind the candidate of the National Rally Hervé Juvin (11.9%).
Live: LIVE - Regional: LREM, eliminated, calls to vote for Xavier Bertrand in the Hauts de France
"I say this tonight obviously bluntly, it's a big disappointment for the presidential majority, it's a big disappointment in the Pays de la Loire region, it's a big disappointment in all the regions of France »
, Declared François De Rugy in Nantes.
"The presidential majority is still a young movement, is still a movement which has difficulty in nationally embodying a clear line, a political project, a clear political identity and, moreover, the presidential majority has very little relay among the local elected officials"
, he analyzed.
François de Rugy affirmed that he maintained his candidacy because he wishes to embody
"a force of balance which makes it possible to temper the excesses of the future majority"
in the regional council.
He will therefore face in the second round the outgoing president Christelle Morancais (LR), who came first, a union list of the ecologist Matthieu Orphelin and the socialist Guillaume Garot, and that of the RN Hervé Juvin.
Read also: Regional 2021: discover the results of the first round region by region
In 2015, the Pays de la Loire region had switched to the right after two terms of socialist Jacques Auxiette. Bruno Retailleau, who ceded his post mid-term to Christelle Mor Anglais because of the law on the non-accumulation of mandates, won with 42.70% against the left list of Christophe Clergeau and his 37, 56%.