Green wave floods French cities, but Prime Minister Philippe wins in Le Havre

Édouard Philippe has won, but at Le Havre town hall it is the supporters of his rival, the communist Jean-Paul Lecoq, who make the most of it on Sunday evening. “You bastard,” they chant, “we don’t want you here anymore.”

The local election in Le Havre received more attention this year than the Norman port city normally receives. It is the French Prime Minister who is participating here, and the results may have consequences for national politics. It is also a bizarre election, because Philippe will most likely be replaced by his predecessor Jean-Baptiste Gastinne, while he remains in Paris himself.

“That’s one of the reasons we are so angry,” said Muriel Lemoine, a young woman behind her black mask. “We don’t want a ghost mayor here.” Her vote for Lecoq was also a vote against Paris policy. “Lecoq is a man of the people. Macron and Philippe are one pot wet. They have nothing to do with ordinary people. ”

Philippe’s supporters don’t mind if he doesn’t become a mayor later. “We voted for the team around him, his policy,” said Fabien Eudes, a 58-year-old school principal chatting with friends. “They have transformed Le Havre: the new tram lines, the cruise ships, the new courses at the university. Philippe has put Le Havre back on the map. ”

But Eudes and his friends also admit that the elections in Le Havre this year were a vote for or against government policy in Paris. “It is also an endorsement of the work Philippe does in Paris,” says Eudes. “If Macron now sends him out, Philippe is guaranteed to run for the presidential election in 2022.”

Macron’s go-around

French media have been speculating for months that President Macron wants to replace his prime minister. This is consistent with a relaunch with which Macron wants to breathe new life into the last two years of his presidency. Philippe – himself from the right-wing party Les Républicains – is much more popular than his president: 48 percent of the French think he is doing well, Macron is at most 39 percent satisfied.

Macron’s own party, La République en Marche, was punished by the voter on Sunday. It does not bring in any significant city. That was not entirely unexpected: LREM is a new party formed around the person of Macron, and has no tradition in local politics.

In Perpignan, Louis Aliot, ex-partner of President Marine Le Pen, becomes mayor. It is the first time since Toulon in 1995 that the former Front National (now RN) is allowed to control a medium-sized city.

But the election trend was the breakthrough of the Greens of Europe Ecology – Les Verts (EELV) in almost all major cities. This was also predicted, but the green wave is even greater than expected. Lyon, Bordeaux and Strasbourg will have a green mayor. In Paris and Marseille, the Greens won through left-wing alliances. In Lille, socialist leader Martine Aubry was re-elected for the third time, but this time with only 227 votes ahead of EELV’s candidate.

“A political turning point for our country,” said Yannick Jadot, head of the Greens in the European Parliament for the EELV. “A response to the government’s refusal to make choices about environmental and social issues.”

The question now is what conclusions Macron connects to the results. According to the French media, the president has wanted to wait for these elections to announce his restart. In the corona crisis, Macron put a lot of effort into sustainability, read: conditions for state aid to Air France and the car industry.

Also read: French citizens’ parliament wants referendum on ‘ecocide’

But greening just like that is not self-evident. The protest of the yellow vests was partly a rebellion against expensive environmental measures that were poorly digested in rural areas and lower incomes. The citizens’ parliament that convened for nine months on Macron’s initiative on how to reconcile climate and social justice did not produce spectacular results.

“If these elections make it clear that you cannot win in France without the Greens,” said Alexis Deck (44), EELV’s leader in Le Havre, on Sunday at the town hall. Deck is the exception to the rule: where his party scores well everywhere in France, he himself has lost his seat on the city council. Unlike in Paris or Marseille, there was no alliance in Le Havre between the left and the Greens.

Le Havre also shows that the green wave is not representative of all of France. Deck: “Le Havre is a port and industrial city, left and right have always agreed on all major projects here as long as they provide employment.” Like the coal-fired power station in Le Havre. Shortly after his election in 2017, Macron has promised to shut down all coal-fired power stations in France by 2021. Prime Minister Philippe has tried tooth and nail to keep Le Havre open until 2035 – in vain.

Prime Minister Philippe was on his way to Paris on Monday to meet President Macron at the Élysée. In mid-June, Philippe said in an interview with the newspaper Paris-Normandy that the President “knows who I am, what I stand for, what I can do, and what I cannot do.”