On voting Sundays in the legislative elections, Pierre Morel-A-L’Huissier surveys the town of Fournels, the village of Lozère of which he was mayor for sixteen years. He circles it twenty times, thirty times, until the time comes for the results. Residents keep count, for fun, and try to find a correlation with the score of their champion. So far, the lawyer ranked on the right has always won: in 2002, dubbed by his mentor, Jacques Blanc, seven times deputy before him; in 2007, after the election of Nicolas Sarkozy; in 2012, despite the merger of the two constituencies of the department; and in 2017, against La République en Marche (LRM).
This year, Pierre Morel – as the people of Lozère call him – doubts. It was the case before, but maybe a little less. He fears the “disengagement” and, at age 63, “youthism” voters and opponents. “The territory does not speak. I don’t feel it at all”, he lets go, speaking of the election in front of a sympathizer of the commune of Bédouès-Cocurès. To hear him, his state of mind is not pessimistic. It is rather an admission of his inability to analyze the electoral dynamics after two years of health crisis, while the economy is uncertain and criticism of the efficiency of the State, recurrent.
So, in order not to be overwhelmed by apprehension, the deputy whips. A stage in each of the 152 municipalities of the least populated department of France was organized in the last weeks before the first round. Between three and four thousand files continue to be managed by its five employees to respond to questions and incessant requests from elected officials and individuals. On all topics: regime of Protestant family cemeteries, taxation of swimming pools, vulture attacks, developments related to the Tour de France, tensions around town planning certificates or regulation of road advertising. Pierre Morel always answers and says yes, often. “He’s more than a deputy, he does everything”greets Agnès Bouard, the current mayor of Fournels.
“A facilitator who makes relations more fluid”
From the restaurant of a cross-country ski resort in Laubert to the changing rooms of a gymnasium in Florac, in white shirt sleeves under the May sun, no one talks to him about politics. “Ruralness transcends everything”, he hammers like a mantra. On the one hand, Pierre Morel pulls from this intermediary position – “a facilitator who makes relations more fluid”according to the mayor of Les Bondons, Francis Durand – the material necessary for his prolific parliamentary activity: 89 bills tabled during the last term of office, including one adopted, on the protection of the sensory heritage of the countryside.
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