2024-12-08 21:01:00
Surprise in teh Ardennes: the National Rally (RN) lost, on Sunday 8 December, the first electoral constituency won in July, to Lionel Vuibert, former deputy of the macronist majority, now without a label.
Following the resignation in October of MP (RN) Flavien Termet, briefly the youngest MP in the National Assembly, partial legislative elections were called. Former MP lionel Vuibert won the second round on Sunday with 50.9% of the vote,or 372 votes ahead of candidate (RN) Jordan Duflot. Abstention amounted to 69% of those registered, a vrey slight decrease compared to the first round.
Although by-elections rarely benefit the RN, the constituency was very favorable to the far right. In the first round, Jordan Duflot had a 14 point lead over his opponent, who could though hope for the support of the voters of the Les Républicains party (16% in the first round) and those of the New Popular Front (10%).However, their candidates had not provided voting instructions.
In this narrow configuration, the RN sought to make a difference by sending its popular president, Jordan Bardella, to a press conference alongside jordan Duflot on Tuesday, December 3. The far right thus hoped to mobilize an electorate that had just failed in the first round. But that wasn’t enough.
Discreet campaign
Lionel Vuibert, 56, was a deputy in the constituency from 2022 to 2024, elected under the label of the presidential majority and a member of the Agir! party, wich brings together former right-wing elected officials. this time he showed up without a label, and told the story World I want to sit among the unregistered. The man has a well-known name in the Ardennes, his father was a two-term MP and mayor of Rethel, a town in the constituency, and his mother was a municipal councilor of a nearby village.He is general director of the training centers of the Union of Metallurgical Industries and Professions of Champagne-Ardenne (UIMM).
The right-wing candidate led an electoral campaign, between the two rounds, condemning the censure motion voted by the RN with the left, which led to the overthrow of Michel Barnier’s goverment. He made a difference in Charleville-Mézières, the southern half of which is covered by this constituency, with 60% of the vote. The other town in the constituency, Rethel, gave him 53% of the vote.