France turns towards extremes. After eight in the afternoon this Sunday, the first exit polls of the first round of these municipal elections pointed to a new advance of the extreme right, which for years has been expanding unstoppably throughout French territory.
Although the Official results will not be confirmed until this Monday, The first polls after the closure of the schools indicated that the National Group had increased its power by winning voters and renewing several mayoralties. In cities like Perpignan (51.5%), Henin Beaumont (77.71%) or Fréjus (51.33%), their mayors were re-elected directly and will not have to undergo a vote in the second round. In others, like Toulon, Nimes, Carcassonne or Calais, its candidates advanced to the second round with a considerable advantage.
In A stringhis ally Eric Ciotti led the first round with 43.50%, ten points ahead of his center-right rival Cristian Estrosi (30.7%). As soon as the first results were known, the president of the National Group, Jordan Bardella appeared before the press: “These results reveal an expectation that we know is enormous (…) in line with the latest European and legislative ones,” he stated. In his speech, Bardella already began what will be a week of strategies and alliances for the second round, reaching out “to the sincere right-wing lists,” he declared.
Faced with the suffocation of lepenism, the left held its breath after nine at night, when the first polls that arrived from Marseillesa traditionally left-wing city, showed a tie between the extreme right and the left union with 35.4%. As the hours passed, the dance of numbers did not stop, but at midnight the coalition led by Benoit Payant (35.6%) still failed to break away from the far-right Franck Alisio (35.1%).
Given these results, the former Macronist Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, general secretary of ‘Renacimiento’, warned of an “unprecedented progression” of the extremes and cmissed the door to any alliance “neither with La Francia Insumisa nor with Agrupación Nacional”, reinforcing the narrative of a center-right isolated from the extremes of the political spectrum.
Big cities resist the extreme right
Although the extreme right is progressing in France, the big cities – Paris, Lyon and Marseille – continue to resist her. The French capital would retain its socialist mayor with Emmanuel Gregoire (38.30%)compared to a much lower result than expected for the conservative Rachida Dati (26%). Lille and Lyon also showed that resistance from the left, especially the latter, where in recent weeks, the murder of the young far-right militant at the hands of an ultra-left group marked the course of the electoral campaign.
“The right and the extreme right are willing to do anything, even to ally” in the face of this, “we are the only solution,” Gregoire declared during the election night.
Not only is the extreme right growing, The extreme left is also experiencing an important evolution. The spokesperson for La Francia Insumisa (LFI), Manuel Bompard, defended that they have had “an important progression” in the municipal elections and that in some localities they have multiplied their 2020 results by four. Bompard also pointed out the victory of their candidates in cities such as Roubaix or Limoges and that they are “side by side” in Lille, until now one of the socialist strongholds.
Bompard attributes this progress to “a new generation, feminist and young, such as French society” that seeks to enter “the political life of the country” and appealed to the other candidates to support their lists to avoid the triumph of the extreme right. However, the call seems not to have much effect among the socialist ranks, who have already closed the door to a possible new union between the left. “There will be no national agreement between the Socialist Party and La Francia Insumisa”, declared the leader of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure.
Unlike the last legislative elections of 2024, in which the New Popular Front To stop the extreme right, this time it is difficult to imagine that there could be a new cordon sanitaire that brings together all the left. For Faure, before the collapse of ‘macronism’ and in the face of the complicity of the moderate right, “only the left is in a position to stop the extreme right” that “continues to progress” on the way to the Elysee Palace in the next presidential elections in 2027.
Edouard Philippe, the latest macronist bala
The former center-right prime minister and candidate for the 2027 presidential elections, Edward Philippesaw these elections as the first litmus test in his career towards the Elysee Palace. Approved by his neighbors in Havre with 43.76%, the representative of the center union faces the second round “with energy,” he stated.
Next Sunday Philippe will face Jean-Paul Leqoc, candidate of the left-wing union, who was ten points behind, with a 33,25% of the votes.
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