On this Sunday morning, after mass in the chapel of the Saint-François convent in the western French city of Cholet, the incense slowly dissipated. The parishioners wandered off. Jean Ortmans, 53, lingered in the adjoining oratory. The doctor loves this church, set in the former Carmelite monastery a little way from the town center. It welcomes the faithful "of all ages and social conditions, who mingle in brotherhood and without judgment." The chapel was full that morning. "And yet, we are a minority in Cholet today..." he said. In a historically Christian land wedged between the western French regions of Brittany and Vendée, Cholet is now home to many who do not practice any religion.

Ortmans is a member of another minority too: He is a practicing Catholic who has long resisted the temptation of the far right. But times are changing. "I have Catholic patients who voted Rassemblement National [RN] for the first time, even though they were Macronists," said the doctor. "They talk to me a lot about it. It's the first time I've seen people so anxious." He who "never voted for the RN," admitted that he's swaying. "Today, I wouldn't mind," he eventually said. "I see the Macronists as more violent than the RN," he justified. "I can't vote for someone who professes hatred or for a moralist. We Catholics have been reproached enough for being so." "The moralists," he pointed out, "are the people who govern today."

Many practicing Catholics are feeling anxious about the early parliamentary elections called by President Macron on Sunday, June 9. A poll conducted on June 9 by IFOP for the Catholic newspaper La Croix showed that many "practicing Catholics" (occasionally and regularly) shifted to the far right for the European parliamentary elections: 32% voted for the RN and 10% for the other far-right party, Reconquête!. In the 2019 European elections, only 18% voted for the far-right. However, those who attend mass regularly are resisting: only 18% voted RN and 10% for Reconquête!.

'We're looking for a reasonable choice'

Cholet is emblematic. It has always been wary of extremes. During the 2002 presidential elections, far-right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen's score in Cholet in both the first and second rounds was half his national average. In 2022, Macron received 38.2% in the first round and almost 73% in the second. However, in the European elections on June 9, the RN took the lead in Cholet with 23.4% of the vote, ahead of Macron's party Renaissance (21.2%). While these percentages were lower than the national level, the results were still significant, causing a stir in Cholet. In 2019, the RN came third, well behind Macron's party. Cholet's mayor, Gilles Bourdouleix, announced on June 11 that he would run as a candidate for the parliamentary elections with the backing of the RN and Eric Ciotti, the president of the conservative Les Républicains (LR) party who has been rejected by his party for joining forces with the RN.

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