There is, of course, the big picture, that which the president of LR Christian Jacob tried to assert Sunday evening: at the end of the second round of the municipal elections, his party remains the first municipal force. The right has “Returned to victory”, he welcomed on France 2, claiming the win in “More than half of the cities with more than 9,000 inhabitants”. To his achievements, LR even added new takes, such as Metz, Biarritz, Lorient, Orléans or Briançon. “A few months ago, we had to disappear, said the party’s general secretary, Aurélien Pradié. Keeping yourself at a high level is no small feat. ” Vice President Guillaume Peltier welcomed one “Victory of the Republicans in majority France, that of medium-sized cities and provinces”. An auspicious result, we judge, for the senatorial, departmental and regional elections.
Symbols that hurt
There are also, however, these symbols that hurt. They are concentrated in a few symbolic but highly observed metropolises, where the picture is quite the opposite. With Bordeaux and Marseille, two jewels of the LR crown swing to the left. AT Lyon, Strasbourg and Paris, these are conquest operations which fail in large widths. In both cases, even local alliances with LREM, embarrassing for the leaderships of the two parties, would not have made it possible to pass the bar.
Of the top ten cities in France, the right now only has two, Nice and Toulouse – the second narrowly preserved. “There is clearly a dichotomy between the France of the territories and the big cities”, analyzes a figure of the party, for whom “All that does not help us in the run-up to the presidential election: the strength of alternation is less and less us, more RN or ecology” – this last strong of conquests limited in number, but spectacular.
“Embodying ecology”
Under these conditions, the greatest danger for the right would be “Denial of reality”, continues this elected official, not reassured by the satisfaction displayed on Sunday by the party. In recent years, to its will to embody the “territories” against the champion of the “elites”, the right has often pointed the finger at “France of the metropolises” and the aspirations lent to its inhabitants. It was one of the favorite registers of the former president of LR, Laurent Wauquiez, who prided himself on being hated by the “Urban bohemian environment”. The party, moreover, largely ignored the ecological question, to the point that some fear it being overwhelmed on this theme by the RN and its promotion of “localism”.
“The right has succeeded in embodying the territories, it now has to embody ecology to win back the big cities and the townspeople”, therefore considers the president of the LR group in the Assembly, Damien Abad. “The French do not adhere to the decreasing theses of the ecologists, but this party carries a hope, abounds Aurélien Pradié. Son social issues, consumption… If the right has something to say on these issues, it can also bring hope. ” But she will have to say it quickly.
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