The National Rally dreams of a first victory in the Bouches-du-Rhône
Galvanized by its presidential scores in Marignane as in Vitrolles, bastions of the far right in the 1990s, the National Rally (RN) finally hopes to win in June in the 12e riding “cursed” Bouches-du-Rhône, facing the outgoing deputy on the right.
“If those who voted for the presidency go back to the polls for the legislative elections, it’s good for us”, predicts the candidate and leader of the Bouches-du-Rhône RN, Franck Allisio, during a leaflet distribution session on the Marignane market, punctuated by the noise of planes from the airport. In April, eight of the nine municipalities that make up this constituency with a strong Pied-noir community placed Marine Le Pen in the lead in the second round of the presidential election, with 53 to 70% of the vote.
Determined not to let the breath of the presidential election fall, Franck Allisio faces eight other candidates in this constituency which unfolds between the Etang de Berre – where the petrochemical industrialists are concentrated – and the shores of the Mediterranean, with its chic houses and its casino in Carry-le-Rouet. However, sending heavyweights like Jean-Pierre Stirbois in 1988, then Bruno Mégret in 1993 and 1997, or even Jean-Lin Lacapelle in 2017, was never enough for the National Front and then the National Rally to win this constituency. The far-right party never even had deputies in the Bouches-du-Rhône, except in 1986, thanks to the proportional vote, with four elected deputies.
The scores of the last presidential election therefore do not worry outgoing deputy Eric Diard (Les Républicains), leaving for a fourth term. Especially since La République en Marche has given up presenting a candidate for “to block the National Rally”. “The far right has always been strong here in national elections, but locally this does not hold true”wants to believe the former mayor of Sausset-les-Pins, recent rapporteur of an information mission to the National Assembly on radicalization in public services.
As proof, four towns in the constituency are run by left-wing mayors, notably communists, recalls the outgoing deputy, whose leaflets do not bear the logo of the LR party. And to point to the scores of the RN in the municipal elections of 2020, between 10 and 19% in the five municipalities where he presented candidates. “Franck Allisio has just discovered this constituency, it’s a parachute, but the inhabitants want elected officials who know their territory for these legislative elections, which are local elections, not national ones”, tackles the candidate about Franck Allisio, former LR now president of the RN group on the city council in Marseille. With its departmental representative, the RN hopes to finally outsmart the statistics, despite competition from the party of Eric Zemmour, with Jacques Clostermann.
The candidate of the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes), Isabelle Chauvin, municipal councilor La France insoumise in the team of the socialist mayor in Vitrolles, where Jean-Luc Mélenchon came in second position in the first round of the presidential election, hopes it creates the surprise: “The coalition raises hopes in working-class neighborhoods” with a large North African population, who say “especially not the RN”reports this professor of letters and history in vocational high school.