“Green wave” for environmentalists, return “to victory” for LR, “click” for the RN thanks to Perpignan: the oppositions have all seen reasons for satisfaction in the results of the second round of municipal elections on Sunday, qualified on the other hand by “disappointment” by government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye.
In Le Havre, the “results are clear” estimated Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who largely won the second round against the communist Jean-Paul Lecoq with almost 59% of the votes.
It is “an act of trust,” he added.
If this election of the Prime Minister is a “very positive signal”, according to Sibeth Ndiaye, the government spokesperson however expressed on France 2 the “disappointment” of the majority, which recorded scores sometimes “extremely disappointing” because of its “divisions”.
Le Havre is “the tree that hides the forest”, said the leader of La France insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon during a statement.
In Lyon, Strasbourg or Bordeaux, for example, the first estimates gave the candidates supported by the majority beaten by their ecological adversaries.
“What has won tonight, it seems to me, is the desire for a concrete ecology, an ecology in action”, “a hope around a beautiful project”, thus welcomed the EELV MEP Yannick Jadot on TF1, while party spokesperson Eva Sas spoke on France 2 “a green wave (which) is rising in France”.
In Lille, ecologist Stéphane Baly and outgoing PS Martine Aubry were neck and neck according to first estimates, the second finally claiming from AFP its victory around 9:15 p.m.
The first secretary of the PS, Olivier Faure, saw him “an immense momentum (which) rises in all France and allows to see all the left and the ecologists who are gaining formidable victories: Brest, Saint-Denis , Rouen, Cherbourg, Quimper, Chambéry, Périgueux, Morlaix, Nancy, Besançon, etc. A social and ecological block is being born “.
In Paris, the socialist Anne Hidalgo triumphed over Rachida Dati (LR) and Agnès Buzyn (LREM).
LR side, “we are returning to victory”, estimated the party’s boss, the deputy Christian Jacob, after victories or re-elections in Mulhouse, Colmar, etc.
Mr. Jacob claimed the victory of his party in “more than half of the cities with more than 9,000 inhabitants”. “The right is the majority in the big cities of France”, estimated the former boss of LR Jean-François Copé on France 2.
“Civic strike”
In Perpignan, the “republican front” in favor of the outgoing LR mayor Jean-Marc Pujol failed to block the road to the historic frontist Louis Aliot (National Gathering), which won the first prefecture and city of over 100,000 inhabitants for the party since Toulon in 1995.
“It is a system that is crumbling,” welcomed the MP to AFP. RN President Marine Le Pen welcomed a “real big victory”, seeing it as a “real click”.
Across all cities, abstention was very high, estimated at around 60%.
The head of state, Emmanuel Macron, said on Sunday evening “concerned about (this) low participation rate”, described as “civic strike” and a “dangerous” moment by the leader of La France rebellious Jean -Luc Mélenchon.
In the first round, less than one in two voters (44.3% compared to 63.5% in 2014) had come to vote due to the risk of contamination.
The second round of municipal elections was held on Sunday in nearly 5,000 municipalities, with two major challenges: the revival of participation despite the continuing health crisis, and several large cities that could rock under the push of the Greens.
More than 157,000 candidates and 16.5 million voters were concerned by this extraordinary ballot, more than three months after the postponement in extremis of the vote, initially scheduled for March 22, because of Covid-19.
The municipal councilors, elected for six years, will meet from Friday 3 to Sunday 5 July to elect the mayors and their deputies. And in some cities, it will actually be necessary to wait for this “third round” to know the name of the mayor.
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