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When visiting three towns in northern France last week, President Emmanuel Macron insisted that he was not running for Sunday’s election campaign. Regional elections“I just continue to work for the country,” he said. Few people believe him.The Hauts-de-France region north of Paris is Xavier Bertrand, A center-right presidential candidate, is also a potentially dangerous competitor for Macron in the Elysee Palace election next year.
The president needs a decent election result to allow his centrist Marche Republican Party to cut off Bertrand’s wings. Therefore, he stopped and added no less than five ministers to the party’s regional list to strengthen its appeal and arrange his own visit to the region. But in the first round of voting on Sunday, LREM failed. According to estimates, Hauts-de-France won only 9% of the support and failed to reach the deadline for the second round of voting on June 27. Bertrand won with 41% of the vote, defeating his far-right opponent by a second.
Nationally, Macron was the biggest loser in the polls, although the far-right National League led by Marina Le Pen performed much worse than expected, garnering only 19% of the vote, and ranking in only one region. One, instead of the six expected. Macron’s party still lacks the benefits of grassroots organizations and local incumbency, falling to fifth place with 11% of the vote, and failing to enter the second round of voting in several regions.
Proportional representation elections in regional councils with limited powers in transportation, schools, and economic development are an unreliable guide to next year’s presidential election. The turnout rate is also very low, only 35%. But in two respects, this is a warm-up for the upcoming big game.
“The stake here is that Emmanuel Macron (Emmanuel Macron) demonstrated himself as the ability to fight against the walls of Marina Le Pen,” said Chloe, an analyst at the Think Tank of the Jean-Jauler Foundation. · Morin (Chloe Morin) said. “For Marina Le Pen, it’s about the glass ceiling, breaking the idea that her party cannot win high-risk elections.”
Sunday’s election showed that the glass ceiling is still difficult to break, although the far right may still have a chance to win next weekend’s Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. The establishment of a regional committee will be another step in the normalization of the extreme right, and its policy stance has eased in recent months. Le Pen’s opponents will hope that the disappointing scoring from the far right will make her sails fade.
At the same time, Macron had to worry about Bertrand, his most likely competitor in the right wing.
From the beginning, presenting himself as the best politician to defeat the extreme right has been a core part of Macron’s political strategy. His convincing win for the presidency in 2017 proves this. But after four turbulent years at the Elysee Palace, with French politics in a frenzy due to lawlessness and the threat of Islamic terrorism, Le Pen’s threat is as strong as ever. Opinion polls unanimously indicate that she will win the first round of the presidential election in April next year and approach Macron in a disturbing manner in the second round. They also implied that Bertrand, the former conservative Minister of Health and Labor, could beat her more easily than Macron.
By easily defending against the far right in northern France, Bertrand strengthened his claim that he could better unite the country against Le Pen. “Here we have relaxed and shattered the jaws of the National Front [as the far-right used to be known],” he said on Sunday night. He added that he is now a city wall.
Macron originally hoped to have a more intense game in Upper France in order to be able to save Bertrand in the second round. But Bertrand did not need his help. The center-right Republicans have also strengthened their control over other regions, showing that even if the left is not as dying as expected, France is firmly leaning towards the conservative direction. Assuming that Republicans lag behind him, Bertrand can expect a huge boost in his presidential campaign. The dual identity between Macron and Le Pen has now become a three-way race.
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