Tight smiles, tense laughter. In the campaign premises of the candidates invested by the outgoing presidential majority, Sunday, June 12, it is difficult to savor the results of the first round of the legislative elections. On paper, however, they seem satisfactory. With 31.43% of the votes collected – five points more than the national average – the representatives of Ensemble! still embody the leading political force in Brittany. However, many of them know they are in danger before the second round, Sunday June 19.
The euphoria of 2017 is definitely over. At the time, the candidates invested by La République en Marche (LRM) had marched in the election and won twenty-four of the twenty-seven constituencies. A performance that had confirmed Brittany in the laboratory of macronism. The voters of this region with a Christian democratic heritage had been particularly sensitive to the promise of rallying the social democrats, such as the socialist Jean-Yves Le Drian then president of the region, to the activists of a moderate right, long locally embodied by Pierre Méhaignerie, mayor of Vitré from 1977 to 2020 and minister on several occasions.
Five years later, the enthusiasm has changed sides and is now that of the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes). The candidates of the union of the left qualified for the second round in twenty-five constituencies and weighed 29.03% of the Breton votes in a context of abstention less strong than elsewhere (46.72% in Brittany against 52 .49% in France). The left therefore seems able to win between six and twelve constituencies, particularly in Rennes and its surroundings, in Brest (Finistère) and in the Côtes-d’Armor.
Attract right-wing voters
The strategy of a very broad union on the left had however been debated among the socialists leading the majority of the communities of the peninsula. Loïg Chesnais-Girard, president of the region, and the mayor of Brest, François Cuillandre, had lambasted her so far as to support dissident candidates. Sunday, no one was under any illusion. Left-wing voters preferred to support the line defended by Nathalie Appéré, mayor of Rennes.
La Nupes particularly threatens the heavyweights of Breton macronie. In the 6e constituency of Finistère, the re-election of Richard Ferrand is uncertain. Quite a symbol. The President of the National Assembly, however, claims a third of the votes cast, but was surprised by the socialist Mélanie Thomin. Even if this 37-year-old teacher only had a few weeks to campaign on behalf of Nupes, she is trailing Emmanuel Macron’s loyal lieutenant by 2.5 points.
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