France
The French went to the polls on Sunday for the second round of the municipal elections. Emmanuel Macron’s party has failed to win in any big city.
President Emmanuel Macron voted in Le Touquet (north) at midday.
–AFP
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Voters largely shunned the polls on Sunday in France for the second round of municipal elections, a ballot with national stakes marked by an environmentalist push and by a struggling presidential party in several large cities, despite the victory of Prime Minister Edouard Philippe .
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Macron says he is “concerned”
Between the start of the summer holidays, concerns still present about the health situation and an interminable campaign – three and a half months separated the two towers, coronavirus forces – abstention reached record levels, close to 60%.
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Very soon after the first results, President Emmanuel Macron said he was “concerned about the low participation rate”.
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The Republic on the March (LREM), the presidential party, is not in a position of strength in any big city.
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But Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who had not endorsed the LREM label, easily won the election in the port city of Le Havre with 59% of the vote.
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Green push
Well placed in several major cities in France, such as Lyon and Marseille whose results are expected later Sunday evening, environmentalists confirmed their good breakthrough in the first round, according to first estimates on Sunday.
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Ecologist Grégory Doucet arrived far ahead of his right-wing rival (LR) in Lyon. In Bordeaux, Pierre Hurmic was just ahead of the outgoing mayor Nicolas outgoing (LR), supported by the presidential party LREM.
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In Lille (north), the ecologist Stéphane Baly was shoulder to shoulder with the historic socialist mayor Martine Aubry, according to three polling institutes.
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In Paris, the outgoing mayor was re-elected with almost 50% of the vote, against around 33% for the right-wing candidate Rachida Dati and 13.7% for the former Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn (LREM), according to estimates .
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The far right, for its part, won the election in Perpignan, a Catalan city of more than 100,000 inhabitants, with the victory of Louis Aliot, the ex-companion of Marine le Pen.
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What impact for Macron?
It remains to be seen what impact this election will have on the orientation of the last two years of Emmanuel Macron’s five-year term.
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Should he give wages to environmentalists? Will he keep his Prime Minister out of office reinforced with his victory in Le Havre?
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The French president, who consults at all costs but lets nothing filter his intentions, holds only the keys to a possible reshuffle.
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Emmanuel Macron had suggested that the coronavirus crisis was going to profoundly change things and said that he had to “reinvent himself”.
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He will have to find a delicate balance between the will of the left wing of his party to introduce an ecological inflection without abandoning the liberal choices of the beginnings.
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In recent weeks, several defections by deputies have made LREM lose the absolute majority in the National Assembly.
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The coronavirus poll
Probably anxious to evacuate this cumbersome election as quickly as possible, Emmanuel Macron has already planned to speak on June 29.
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He will give his first responses to the proposals made by the Citizens’ Climate Convention, an assembly of 150 citizens drawn by lot to give color to direct democracy in the country.
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Marked by abstention, this ballot will also remain like that of the coronavirus.
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After a first round organized at the time when the epidemic was sweeping over France, many precautions were taken for this second round.
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Mandatory mask, hydroalcoholic gel and physical distance were required for voting operations
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France, hard hit by the new coronavirus, has recorded more than 29,750 deaths since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic.
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(AFP/NXP)
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