RN-Nupes duel in the second round: Jean-Michel Blanquer pleads support for left-wing candidates on a “case by case” basis and not in his constituency
“It’s a relative failure”considers the former Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer at the microphone of RTL, Monday evening, about his elimination in the first round in the 4e constituency of Loiret. He came third, with 18.89% of the vote, behind the candidate of the National Rally (RN), Thomas Ménagé (31.45%), and that of the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes), Bruno Nottin (19 .43%).
As he argued on Monday morning, Mr Blanquer believes he is “became public enemy number 1” of “far left”. According to him, “This path is the Trojan horse of an extremism that leads to something other than democracy. » Denouncing a “Verbal violence” which always ends with a ” physical violence “citing the egg throwing he suffered during the campaign, the latter believes that the left has led a campaign of hatred against him in this constituency.
On the subject of the duels between the RN and the Nupes which will take place in 61 constituencies, including his own, Mr. Blanquer argued that he stood on the following line: that of calling to vote for the left-wing candidates ” case by case “. While several ministers and personalities of the majority oppose on the question – between systematic republican front or according to the candidates -, the ex-minister argued that, to decide, “Clarity is very simple: Are we in the Republican arc or [est-ce qu’]we are not? »
While the journalist revived him by asking if, for him, Mr. Mélenchon was not part of the Republican arc, the latter replied : ” No of course not “, citing for example the fact that certain “rebellious” figures, including the deputy Danièle Obono, displayed themselves alongside Jérémie Corbyn, ex-boss of the British Labor Party, excluded from his parliamentary group for laxity in the face of anti-Semitism. He made it clear that in his constituency it was unthinkable for him to call for support for the Nupes candidate.
On BFM-TV, Monday morning, Mr. Blanquer rightly announced that he wanted to do “legal recourse” against the latter. “He behaves outrageously all the time, his verbal abuse is extremehe criticized. He repeatedly attacked me in unacceptable ways and in addition many of his actions during the campaign were illegal. » While Mr. Nottin beat him by 180 votes, Mr. Blanquer claimed that the Nupes candidate “violated several election rules during the campaign: making sponsored Facebook posts to voters, which is prohibited; bring in people to parody me and publish tracts that imitate mine by saying inaccurate things”.
According to the findings of the Monde, an advertisement supporting Bruno Nottin was broadcast on Facebook during the campaign. This advertisement, with a budget of less than 100 euros, however, was only shown to a very small audience – and according to data from Facebook’s transparency library, at least half of the people who saw it n didn’t live in 4e constituency of Loiret. In total, a few hundred concerned voters were able to see it, which does not seem likely to have affected the sincerity of the vote.