The banks of the Garonne in Toulouse. Drawing. – Frédéric Lancelo – Sipa
- Given the loser, Jean-Luc Moudenc (LR, supported by LREM) kept his chair as mayor of Toulouse with 4,000 votes ahead of the ecologist Antoine Maurice and his list of citizens.
- Surprisingly the Pink City has withstood the green wave.
- Campaign arguments, display of political parties, militant force, carryover of votes… Here are some attempts to explain this Toulouse exception.
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To read the latest polls, it was the big city most surely promised to rock in the lap of environmentalists during the second round of municipal elections. But unlike Bordeaux, Strasbourg and Marseille, the pink city is not green. While we expected suspense until the end of the night, Jean-Luc Moudenc (LR, supported by LREM) was re-elected there with 4,300 votes in advance (51.98% of the votes) over his rival from Archipel Citoyen, Antoine Maurice.
And the city councilor, although having prepared for the two hypotheses, assures that he did not even fall from the clouds. “I was calm and confident because the polls gave me the loser,” he says. The mistigri had changed sides and that was fine with me. I saw my opponents lock themselves in very quickly with the idea that they were going to win and there is nothing worse to lose an election. He also believes in the accounts that his balance sheet was “solid” and his promising ecology project “pragmatic”.
The mayor of Toulouse also “felt the mobilization on the ground” in the final stretch, given the increase in participation in the polling stations of the suburbs which are favorable to him. However, he doubted, he admits, seeing in early evening major cities are tinged with green.
But the result is not due to the simple fact that the people of Toulouse like to deny the polls.
A bad voice transfer to the left
“I have friends who told me they were going to vote Moudenc! “Underlines Pierre Cohen, the former socialist mayor of Toulouse and loyal support of Antoine Maurice for the second round, which confesses” an immense sadness “and a” real hangover “. This is proof that the tactic of focusing on Antoine Maurice’s leftmost running mate, “to scare” says Pierre Cohen, to attract moderate leftist voices worked.
From Izards to Lardenne via the hypercentre, in most polling stations, the most pro-Moudenc as the most fans of Archipelago, when we add up the votes of the 1st round of the lists Maurice, Cohen, and Pellefigue (with difficult negotiations with a wobbly outcome for this last allinace), the ecologist lacks these 3-4% which make the difference.
Walkers, and parties in general, well camouflaged
The label in Marche was not frankly trendy during these municipal elections. But by rallying the macronists from the start, and by sparing a media fusion of in-between towers as in Bordeaux, Jean-Luc Moudenc skillfully made them invisible.
“As with all the other parties, I asked them to join the campaign,” he confirms. At the time of the match, we only put on one jersey, that of Toulouse ”. The mayor also recalls that half of his running mates came from civil society. In his opinion, “the Archipel object has evolved into a conglomerate of political parties on software from the 1970s”. A “logic” illustrated according to him by “the incredible skewer of apparatchiks [Hamon, Brossat, Mamère] Came to support Antoine Maurice. A sequence also criticized “off” by some “Archipelago”.
A huge militant strike force
“We must also recognize that Jean-Luc Moudenc has powerful networks, in neighborhood committees for example”. Pierre Cohen is well placed to know the mayor’s militant strike force. That of the micropartite “Pour Toulouse”, in line with the Baudis heritage, which claims 16,000 members. Residents of all neighborhoods committed to the cause.
It is practical, Jean-Luc Moudenc for example did not have to call on a service provider for the “boxing” of his leaflets. It is especially useful for disseminating elements of languages on the markets, in associations.
The results of the municipal elections in Toulouse
“Gutter campaign”
Antoine Maurice denounced, including the evening of his defeat, a “gutter campaign”, enamelled with “personal attacks”. Videos have circulated throughout Toulouse.
“I asked my team not to use them,” categorically refutes the mayor. But some of its supporters have freed themselves from the instructions.
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