“I’m a little surprised by the intensity of the abstention… But we don’t know who is abstaining. » Leaving his Marseille polling station, where he was perhaps going for the last time, Sunday June 12, the future former deputy of Bouches-du-Rhône, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, lets his questions filter through on the ballot in Classes. At eleven o’clock, his office, 252, shows 9% participation. “Half less than in the presidential election”, assures one of the assessors. “And, for the moment, we see very few young people”, adds, slightly worried, Hanifa Taguelmint, historical local “rebellious” activist, who passes as an observer.
In the city center of Marseille, the ambitions of the New Popular, Ecological and Social Union (Nupes), and through it, of La France insoumise from which the two invested candidates come, are strong. In the 4e constituency, conquered in 2017 by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Manuel Bompard, dubbed as successor, aims without saying a victory in the first round. In the 5e, neighbor, Hendrik Davi hopes to bring down the outgoing La République en Marche (LRM), Cathy Racon-Bouzon, whom he had already faced in 2017. In these two constituencies, the National Rally (RN), which is not reached the second round in 2017, does not seem able to arbitrate the duel Ensemble-Nupes. There remains the question of participation.
“My priority is to push the people who voted for Jean-Luc [Melenchon] in the first round of the presidential election to repeat their vote”, explained Manuel Bompard at the start of the campaign. A strategy he followed scrupulously, targeting the popular electorate.
Toulouse candidate “parachuted” to Marseille
This Sunday, he too is surprised by the low morning turnout figures. A specialist in electoral calculation, the mathematician by training knows how abstention can thwart the hopes of Nupes. “There are offices where it votes better”, he reassures himself. As for the first round of the presidential election, this Sunday morning he accompanies his leader as closely as possible, remaining in the background like a good child. Officially parachuted on May 12 in this territory which gave 54.4% of its votes to Jean-Luc Mélenchon in April, Manuel Bompard does not vote in Marseille, but always in Toulouse, where he was a candidate in 2017. “Didn’t have time to make the transfer”, he explains to Monde in the fray of cameras that besieges its leader.
In the Marseille offices, the morning started slowly. And, at noon, the voting rate was 16.96%, against 18.6% in 2017. “I don’t expect a big turnout” concedes Pierre Huguet, deputy mayor in charge of education and school canteens, who chairs office 514, in the school on boulevard Chave (5e arr.). In this office, installed in a freshly painted gymnasium, nearly a thousand Marseillais are registered, and usually vote a little more than the municipal average. “Here, people come before the beach, after the beach… or don’t come at all”, predicts the elected Marseille.
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