We will soon know if the French, called to the polls for the second round of legislative elections, will give President Emmanuel Macron an absolute majority and free rein in the National Assembly or if they will allow the New People’s Ecological and Social Union (NUPES) – the left gathered behind the rebellious Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who wants to be Prime Minister – to land in force in the Chamber.
Illustration of this struggle in the city of Lyon, where an outgoing deputy was overtaken in the first round of the legislative ballot by his young rival from the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (NUPES).
Thomas Rudigoz (candidate of the Renaissance party, the new name of La République en Marche) and his team immortalize their canvassing day on this Thursday morning. They are preparing to distribute leaflets and solicit voters in a market in the first district of the Rhône, in Lyon.
In the first round, the incumbent finished second. In 2017, this former district mayor was carried by the wave of La République en Marche by Emmanuel Macron.
I hoped, with a personal added value, perhaps to arrive in a pocket handkerchief. There’s a gap that’s a little bigger than I thought, four and a half percenthe confides.
” It is to be hoped that there will be a jump from our electorate, from the LR electorate [droite] and then of our fellow citizens who do not want the program of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. “
However, others especially do not want to hear about the candidates of Emmanuel Macron’s camp.
Neighborhood resident Fabien Namias says he will vote for NUPES because we really need it for things to be rebalanced, at least on purchasing power.
In this Lyon constituency where many retirees and highly educated people live but which also includes a high proportion of social housing, the left-wing presidential candidates obtained around 40% of the votes in the first round. Jean-Luc Mélenchon finished there in the lead.
The presidential camp is brandishing the red peril, the threat of paralysis, if ever the deputies of the united left enter the National Assembly in force.
This is a position shared by Gérard Chavas, who came to sell his ready meals in Lyon. He predicts a chaos if applicable.
Aurélie Gries, the NUPES candidate, from rebellious France, denounces this speech of fear.
She kicks into touch by predicting the worst if her rival’s camp wins an absolute majority on Sunday: We imagine that it will be a program in the continuity of the last five years. So: social breakdown, democratic denial and failure to take into account the climate crisis.
On this Thursday afternoon, Aurélie Gries woos parents after school. She believes she can still count on a reservoir of votes on the left.
And she does not believe that there is an anti-Mélenchon front in the constituency.
” I have 37.75% of the votes. I am in the lead against Macronie, La République en Marche. And there is really an interest in going to vote, because we can pass. “
To achieve this, it will be necessary in particular that young people go to vote. They largely shunned the ballot boxes in the first round of the legislative elections. NUPES promises to improve their lot.
If Aurélie Gries and her team are targeting the sector at the end of the campaign, it is because abstention was strong in the first legislative round in this district which voted Jean-Luc Mélenchon for president. It is often the people who vote on the left, in Lyon and also elsewhere in France, who are also those who abstain the most in the elections.she adds.
The key to this second round of legislative voting: convincing the undecided and encouraging the abstainers to go, this time, to the polls.
Source: Radio-Canada
