In the days leading up to the election, Landry Ngang saw “people from the neighborhoods of Saint-Denis, not necessarily politicized “, share massively, on the Snapchat social network, calls to vote for its candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon. “The messages were turning: “Go vote”. On D-Day, I saw a lot of young people in the polling stations,” retraces this 22-year-old student. Resident of Saint-Denis, he is co-host of the booklet Popular neighborhoods of the program of the Insoumis candidate in the presidential election.
→ ANALYSIS. Presidential 2022: on the left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon as master of the game
Jean-Luc Mélenchon devoted a section of his project to those he describes as“Forgotten by the Republic” : a winning bet. It was in Seine-Saint-Denis, one of the poorest departments in France, that he achieved his best score in mainland France on Sunday April 10: 49.09%, or 15 points more than in 2017. Well ahead of Emmanuel Macron (20.27%) and Marine Le Pen (11.88%), and with 30% abstention, higher than the national average.
“Macron did not help us”
In Saint-Denis, the most populous city in the department, it even reaches a triumphant 61.13%. “A score that we only hoped for in our wildest dreams”, emphasizes Landry Ngang, who sees it as the result of a relentless door-to-door and digital communication campaign. And the choice of two key themes: “The Redistribution of Wealth and Islam”.
→ SURVEY. Why Muslim voters voted for Jean-Luc Mélenchon
In the pedestrian alley leading to the Saint-Denis basilica, Yousra (1), an 18-year-old student, confirms: “We all know veiled women. Mélenchon, he is not racist, he accepts them.And on purchasing power, he wants to increase the minimum wage to €1,400 and freeze the price of gasoline. Further north, towards the university, three veiled women chat around their strollers, in a small square for children. One says she slipped an Insoumis ballot into the ballot box: “Look at what Marine Le Pen says about us, when we are the third generation of immigrants! And Macron, he did not help us with purchasing power. »
“Young people are losing hope”
“The 93 always amplifies the scores of the left”, notes Stéphane Troussel, the socialist president of the department, who believes that Mélenchon has benefited from a “useful vote”. “The working classes are fed up with poor housing, high cost of living, he continues. Young people are losing hope in the face of the permanent stigmatization and discrimination that cast doubt on the republican pact. »
→ REPORT. Presidential 2022: and the teams of Jean-Luc Mélenchon believed in it
In the speeches of the Dionysian rebel voters, we find this feeling of disrepute: “In the eyes of the other candidates, it seems that 93 is not part of France”, slips Nadia (1), mother. “Mélenchon is for the working classes, for those who are on the side of the road», metaphorizes Nassim, 43, cigarette in hand, at the table of a PMU bar along the canal.
The unemployed forties, who had already voted Mélenchon in 2017, warns: “I’m not going to vote in the second round. I’m not interested, it’s bis repetita. » He specifies that he would even prefer that the extreme right wins: “At least there would be change. »
What voice transfer?
However the attitude of the voters of Mélenchon is the stake of the second round. The candidate called on Sunday not to give “no voice” to Marine Le Pen but will her supporters vote Emmanuel Macron again, as many did in 2017? “There will be no such carryover of votes because many felt despised during the quinquenniumthinks Landry Ngang. It will be divided between the blank vote, abstention and blocking votes against one or the other. »
Anil (1) nods under his hat. Indian naturalized French twenty years ago, he voted for the first time on Sunday, considering that France is at a turning point in its history. On April 24, he will not go to the polls. “For me, Macron and Le Pen, it’s the same danger”, he thinks, predicting a “social breakdown” in the event of re-election of the incumbent. His two children, in their twenties, also voted Mélenchon. For the second round, they have made their choice, it will be Marine Le Pen. “They think it will improve their social situation. And that safeguards will protect us from the rest of his program. »
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