The deputies of the Les Républicains (LR) party had begun to anticipate the electoral slap received by the right in the presidential election, a few weeks before the first round. Engaging what they called the “survival mode”, many of them have deserted Valérie Pécresse’s campaign to take care of theirs, which will see them put their seats in the National Assembly into play on June 12 and 19. By criss-crossing their constituencies in order to save what can be saved.
With less than 5% for their presidential candidate, it is out of the question for LR contenders in the legislative elections to be associated in any way with the image of their party at the national level. The calculation is simple: in national elections, LR has tended to lose since 2017, each time sinking a little further into the abyss that makes small parties. Conversely, performance and victory can be at the rendezvous during local elections, where competitors mainly rely on their names and their results, as was the case in municipal and regional elections during the last five-year period.
As a result, several LR candidates for the legislative elections have chosen to make this election “a cantonal election”. No party logos on their posters or in their leaflets, nor need a national figure to lead the battle on behalf of all. The disparities of profiles and lines are such according to the territories that a single name could not make the synthesis.
The risk of being forgotten by voters
Unlike the candidates of competing parties, such as those of the outgoing majority, who inscribe Emmanuel Macron’s face on campaign material, or those of the National Rally (RN) or the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes), who proudly pose alongside Marine Le Pen or Jean-Luc Mélenchon, aspiring deputies and outgoing LRs prefer not to appear with Valérie Pécresse. These candidates therefore rely above all on themselves to get by on June 12 and 19. “In the constituencies, we are heard. We cannot complain about the hyper-presidentialization and, at the same time, claim that the deputies individually are not responsible for their actions. We are coherent and free”attempts to sum up Raphaël Schellenberger, deputy for Haut-Rhin.
Some, however, are beginning to doubt this strategy. By dint of focusing on the local and no longer giving voice at the national level, the right risks sinking into oblivion by voters altogether. “It is potentially a losing strategy, regrets MEP François-Xavier Bellamy, because the other forces present are playing the national card in an election that is national. » The former head of the 2019 European list recalls that Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s strategy, which consists in personalizing the ballot by making it the third round of the presidential election from which the Prime Minister will come, can harm LR.
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