It is 8:30 pm, this Sunday, June 27, when the applause and the “We won” erupt from the windows of the campaign headquarters of Valérie Pécresse, rue de Turin, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris.
The outgoing president (Libres !, ex-LR) of the first region of France won hands down the quadrangular which opposed her in the second round of the regional to the rally list of the left led by the ecologist Julien Bayou, in that of Jordan Bardella (RN) and that of Laurent Saint-Martin (LREM).
“We are relieved.
There was a resurgence of participation in the cities on the right compared to the first round.
We achieved a score equivalent to that of the other right-wing regions while we were in a quadrangular ", enthuses Pierre Liscia, a close friend of the candidate.
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In Île-de-France, Valérie Pécresse wins widely ahead of Julien Bayou
Faced with three lists, Valérie Pécresse (46% according to estimates) is doing better than in 2015 against two lists. Without exceeding 50% like Xavier Bertrand or Laurent Wauquiez, who faced less adversity in Hauts-de-France and Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes, the president of Île-de-France is even doing much better than 'in the first round of last Sunday (36.2%), while his left-wing opponent the ecologist Julien Bayou (33.6%) is content to do almost as well as the three left-lists of the first round (EELV, PS, LFI). In 2015, Valérie Pécresse had won against the socialist Claude Bartolone with less than two points in advance and only 100,000 votes apart.
This time, her victory, despite a large abstention comparable to that of the first round (around 67%), could not be clearer: at least twelve points separate her from the union list of the left of Julien Bayou (EELV ).
"We are in a difficult region, where the RN has increased year by year and ballot by ballot, where LREM considers that it is playing at home and where the left has decided to ally with the far left with a only slogan beat Valérie Pécresse ”, recalled in the early evening Geoffroy Didier, MEP LR and vice-president of the outgoing regional council.
The other two lists, that of RN Jordan Bardella (11%) and that of macronist Laurent Saint-Martin (La République en marche, 9.4%) have melted by two points each between the two rounds, as if part of their voters had chosen security by voting Valérie Pécresse.
"Continue and amplify my fight"
Smiling arrival around 9 pm, Valérie Pécresse adopted a consensual tone in her first reaction, promising to govern Île-de-France "with conviction, in listening and without sectarianism, president of all Ile-de-France residents".
However, she thanked "those who stood in the way of extremes", in which she places both the extreme right and "the left which has lost its republican compass".
Between the two rounds, she had received the support of the former Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls and his predecessor PS in the presidency of the region Jean-Paul Huchon.
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Marie-Dominique Aeschlimann (LR), outgoing vice-president, welcomes “a very good victory, which shows that Valérie Pécresse was the candidate of the rally.
It has overthrown the motley alliance which wanted to relegate it to the background and which would have brought the region to its doom.
"It will also retain a large majority of about 120 elected out of 209 despite the quadrangular", rejoices for his part the outgoing first vice-president Othman Nasrou.
From there to imagine for her other ambitions (presidential) ... "I want to continue and amplify my fight for my convictions and the values of the Republic", declared Valérie Pécresse, comforted in a region where the left reigned for ten- seven years until 2015.
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Around 9 p.m., the re-elected president of Île-de-France went out into the street, greeted the motorists, a few curious people gathered on the sidewalk or at the windows of the buildings opposite before getting into his car - a SUV - to return to the Kube hotel at Porte de la Chapelle, in the 18th arrondissement, to celebrate his victory.
