One last face-to-face. In Boussac, a town of 1,200 souls in the north of Creuse, meeting a resident vaguely interested in the legislative campaign is almost a feat. It is at the market, where lacquered wooden doors are sold as well as three melons for 10 euros, that the deputy La République en Marche (LRM) Jean-Baptiste Moreau and Catherine Couturier, the candidate of the New Popular Union ecological and social (Nupes) tow with their supporters, Thursday, June 16, on the small square of the village where a suffocating heat falls.
Three days before the second round, the duel between the outgoing LRM and the local leader of La France insoumise (LFI) is a reflection of the national political situation, where 276 constituencies see candidates from the presidential coalition and of the left alliance. Arriving in the lead in the first round, Catherine Couturier, 63-year-old retiree, is ahead of Jean-Baptiste Moreau (25.99%) by 177 votes (26.37% of the votes cast) after a first round dominated by the abstained (45.60%). Amazement for the elected macronist. “Honestly, everyone thought that, for this election, it was in the pocket”admits Eric Daubechies, president of the MoDem in Creuse and support of Mr. Moreau.
The 45-year-old farmer expected to face one of his local enemies, the various right-wing candidate Jean Auclair, a former deputy for the Union for a Popular Movement (now Les Républicains, LR) from the constituency (1993-2012 ). Furious at having been beaten, the latter called, on the evening of the first round, to vote “everything except Moreau”. An instruction that Franck Foulon, the various right-wing mayor of Boussac, makes fun of, who invited himself to the small market square. Handshakes then a cliché for social networks. He did not support Mr. Moreau for the first round, but wants to block “with Nupes reds” for the second. “If Macron has a relative majority, it will be good for everyone, you will have to deal with the others, and especially the LRs, he quips, however, before leaving the premises. It’ll be hot ! »
‘No enthusiasm’
Mr. Moreau’s electoral equation is all the more complex as the carryover of votes in the second round is almost impossible to anticipate. The candidate of the National Rally (RN) in the legislative elections gathered nearly 17% of the votes and finished in fourth position. In the first round of the presidential election, Creuse had already swung in favor of the far right, placing Marine Le Pen at the head of the votes (25.1%), where, in 2017, Emmanuel Macron won in the first round (22.5%), ahead of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
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