Mathieu Klein, Laurent Hénart’s tomb this Sunday in Nancy, will be able to watch the Meurthe-et-Moselle in duplicate: not only because the still virtual mayor of the ducal city is at least until tomorrow president of the departmental council (the only on the left in the Grand Est) but because its score takes a symbolic numerical value: 54.54%.
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Clearance
The victory of the elected socialist, at the head of a PS-PC-Greens list, also sounds like a political symbol: the end of the Rossinot house whose heir eats the dust in proportions that neither of the two competitors never imagined. The Mouvement radical-LREM-LR coalition led by the outgoing mayor is ahead of more than 9 points, offering an unqualified victory to Mathieu Klein. The increase in participation (42.5% against 37.5%) mainly benefited the latter.
André Rossinot had announced that he was leaving the stage. Voters turned the page with him, causing a veritable earthquake that goes far beyond Nancy’s borders giving the city the first left-wing mayor since 1947.
The air of clearing that blew very hard place Stanislas is an exception in Lorraine. As in Saint-Avold, where René Steiner (various centers) sweeps the outgoing André Wojciechowski (Radical movement), yet in the lead in the first round, winning by more than 58%.
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On the wire
Other alternations sometimes occurred on the wire. In Metz, Senator LR and ex-mayor of Woippy, François Grosdidier, wins by a hair on Xavier Bouvet (188 voices apart), taking over the city on the left which reigned for two terms. Close victory (close to 33 votes) also for the related member of the MoDem Laurent Garcia in Laxou, against his ex-first deputy who replaced him as mayor at the end of the 2017 legislative elections, and who ran ‘a list merged with the PS in the second round.
More calmly, in Thionville, Pierre Cuny, who had taken control after the death of Anne Grommerch, emerged largely victorious from a triangular. At Épinal, Patrick Nardin, supported by outgoing Michel Heinrich, wins by nine points (48.14%) over his brother-in-law, Benoît Jourdain. At Bar-le-Duc, Martine Joly retains her chair without problem.
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“Political distancing”
In Forbach, wins in a quadrangular Alexandre Cassaro (various centers), supported by the outgoing socialist mayor Laurent Kalinowski.
The first round of the municipal elections had already been played “in social weightlessness and in political distancing”, noted this week the Burgundian political scientist Claude Patriat (The Conversation Thursday 25 June). This phenomenon was again noted in the second round, which mobilized far less than one in two voters. Around 40% in the four Lorraine departments. 42.5% (against 37.5% on March 15) in Nancy but only 33% in Metz.
The Covid’s fault? Not only. Even if the participation dropped by about 20 points compared to the municipal elections of 2014, it has been steadily declining since 2008. The future or renewed mayors, elected by a minority of voters will first have to establish their legitimacy.
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