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FRENCH VOTERS DUMP FAR-RIGHT BETS IN REG’L COUNCIL RUNOFFS
- By The Financial District
- Jun 30, 2021
- 2 min read
French voters rejected right-wing populist Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN) in Sunday's runoff vote in regional elections, initial projections showed, though turnout remained low, Christian Boehmer reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).
However, the results of the vote were also disappointing for the LREM party of President Emmanuel Macron, exit polls suggested. Voter turnout was again low in Sunday's second weekend of regional elections, which was to decide a series of run-offs after there were no clear winners in the first round.
Voter turnout during an interim tally on Sunday afternoon was just 27.9 percent, according to the Interior Ministry. That's just one percentage point more than at the same time a week ago. Although politicians had appealed to voters to turn out, it appeared their calls had gone unheeded.
There were widespread fears that the far-right RN candidate Thierry Mariani would win in the southern region of Provence-Alpes-Cote-d'Azur, after he was ahead in the first round. However, he only achieved 42 percent, the France 2 broadcaster reported on Sunday evening, citing projections by Ipsos/Sopra Steria polling institute.
The centrist-conservative candidate running against Mariani in the same region, Renaud Muselier, won more than 57 percent of the vote. They were the only two candidates left in the final round, and democratic parties pulled together in a "republican front" to prevent Mariani from winning, according to observers.
"I won, we won," Muselier said in Marseille. The LREM party suffered heavy losses in the elections, according to initial exit polls. The party did not win in any region and LREM candidates all failed to gain even middling results, in a showing that government spokesperson Gabriel Attal described as a "disappointment" in comments to France 2.
Macron's party also performed poorly in the first round of voting last Sunday. "In the end, nobody needs him," commented daily Le Figaro, referring to the 43-year-old Macron, who had started as a high-flyer in the Elysee Palace in 2017. At the time, the former investment banker had started out with the claim that he would break the traditional left-right split in French politics.
