In France, more than three months later, voters are expected on Sunday, June 28 at the polls for the second round of the Municipal elections, which will be held under severe health constraints in the current context of the coronavirus epidemic (Covid-19). This second municipal ballot, which was to be held on March 22, was postponed precisely because of it.
16.5 million people, or 39% of the electorate, will have to vote to appoint their new mayor or their municipal councilors, among the 157,632 candidates who run in 4,827 municipalities where the municipal council was not elected complete in the first round, out of a total of around 35,000 municipalities, according to official figures. The official campaign for this last round began on June 15 in mainland France and in Mayotte, due to severe health constraints, in Guyana the ballot was postponed indefinitely.
Participation will be a determining factor in this second ballot and it is therefore expected that the big losers in these elections should be Emmanuel Macron’s camp and that of Marine Le Pen. Indeed, abstentionism is strongly feared on Sunday. An Ifop survey shows that less than four in ten French people (38%) plan to vote. This rate is even lower than that of the first round. Abstention will certainly be the key to these elections on Sunday as it should define the new political landscape in France. Some should take the opportunity to improve their score.
This second round sounds like a failure announced for La République en Marche (LREM). In principle, it should allow him to establish his power. the deal being different, the president’s party has sharply revised its ambitions downwards and its objective now is only to obtain 10,000 municipal councilors out of the 535,000 that France has. In the same way that LREM put aside its inclinations to conquer big cities like the capital Paris where Agnès Buzyn knows enormous worries or Rennes Nantes or Lille. LREM has even engaged in alliances to save face like in Bordeaux or Strasbourg.
Otherwise, we should see the emergence of other political groups like Europe Ecologie Les Verts (EELV), which has been leading since the European elections and should position itself at the end of this second round, as the first force. to the left. Ecology should triumph in Lyon, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Besançon or even Tours and Grenoble. The Socialist Party should also stick their heads out of the water and see the end of the tunnel a little, thanks to the Greens. Paris, Nantes, Rennes, Dijon, Rouen, Clermont-Ferrand, Lille should allow the rose party to keep its strongholds. Best for last, the united left (socialists, communists, rebellious and Greens) should seize the second city of France, Marseille, which for a quarter of a century was the prerogative of the right.
The Republicans are getting back on track, notwithstanding the loss of Marseille and the likely “honorable” defeat of Rachida Dati in Paris against Anne Hidalgo (PS). Nice, Aix-en-Provence, Colmar, Mulhouse, Metz, Limoges… are all cities which should be headed by a LR mayor during the next mandate. The National Rally, started from Marine Le Pen, hopes to keep its bastions and conquer others (several RN mayors were re-elected in the first round). If it has already taken over 8 of the 10 cities it owned, it should not be a hit, except perhaps conquer Perpignan a city of 100,000 inhabitants.
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