Without the nationalist allies with whom he has governed Corsica since 2015, the autonomist Gilles Simeoni won the second round of the territorial elections, Sunday June 27, 2021. According to the first estimates Ipsos Sopra Steria, the outgoing president of the executive council of Corsica was placed at the head of the votes (39.5%), ahead of the leader of the right, the ex-LR mayor of Ajaccio Laurent Marcangeli (32.1%).
If the final results confirm that he does not cross the 40% mark, Gilles Simeoni's list would not however obtain an absolute majority of seats.
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Third, his autonomist rival Jean-Christophe Angelini (15.2%), mayor of Porto-Vecchio, is ahead of the independentist Paul-Félix Benedetti (13%).
Against a background of significant participation, the disunited nationalists reaffirm their hegemony on the Corsican political scene.
Despite a contested record even in his own camp, Gilles Simeoni, 54, is reinforced in his position as a strongman of the island.
The territorial hemicycle at the head of which he is renewed is however upset.
Solitaire strategy that pays off
The first victim of his profitable solitary strategy, the outgoing president of the Corsican Assembly, Jean-Guy Talamoni, leaves the benches where he had sat for 29 years.
Eliminated in the first round (6.9%), the independentist placed some of his friends from “Corsica Libera” on the list of the autonomist Jean-Christophe Angelini, without however appearing there.
The elected representatives of the left, until then present in the ranks of Jean-Charles Orsucci, local representative of La République en Marche, disappeared from the Corsican Assembly for the first time.
To read also: First round of regional in Corsica: the "natio" Gilles Simeoni ahead of the right
In this new political landscape, the right is progressing by about two points compared to the previous election in 2017. But Laurent Marcangeli failed to become the first mayor of Ajaccio to rise to the head of the island. At 40, the former LR deputy entered a territorial hemicycle dominated by divided nationalists, where he was the only representative of a traditional political force.