"A big slap in the face and infinite sadness." Colinda Ferraud had no other words to describe the evening of the European elections on Sunday, June 9. In the kitchen of her house in the Cévennes range, Ferraud, usually so "enthusiastic and positive," struggled to digest the results. Her morale has been going up and down for the past 10 days. "The sadness of the morning sometimes gives way to moments of hope," admitted the 43-year-old.

It's here, under the shadow of the Mont Aigoual, that the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party has infiltrated. In Le Vigan, the valley's largest town, the party had never before come out on top. The European elections shattered that pride, with RN candidate Jordan Bardella winning 23.2% of the vote in the town and 36.1% in the 5^th constituency of the Gard department, of which it is part. Ferraud, who runs theater and cinema initiatives for schoolchildren, teenagers and families in her mobile caravan, replayed the figures in her head. She'd like to understand. "It means that, inevitably, among all the people I come into contact with, some vote RN..."

Just over a year ago, Le Vigan mobilized against the pension reform led President Emmanuel Macron's government. Over 800 people took part in gatherings in this town of less than 4,000 inhabitants, run by Mayor Sylvie Arnal (left-wing independent). Once a week, opponents of the reform gathered at 6:30 pm in Place de la Mairie to burn a copy of the bill. Yellow vest protesters, a precarious workers' collective, trade unions led by the left-wing CGT, and other organizations marched together. Around the same time, locals were also fighting against the closure of the maternity hospital in nearby Ganges, located 20 minutes away.

"These collective citizen movements didn't happen by chance. It's kind of in our blood. Our families have all mobilized at some point to defend working conditions. Here, there's a strong sense of belonging to a region that we don't want to see die," explained Coralie Joly, leader of the CGT union's local branch. Ferraud, who is neither a member of a political party nor of a trade union, has drawn new energy from this. She recorded all these moments and made a short film. "I felt a surge of solidarity," said the mother of two teenage girls. "Something beautiful was happening."

'Nostalgia for a glorified past'

This "hangover" is all the more difficult to swallow, Ferraud said, because no one openly declares their RN vote in these isolated valleys, with their reclusive hamlets. The Cévennes is a land of struggles. From the Camisard war, an uprising of Protestant peasants refusing to convert to Catholicism in the early 18^th century, to the Maquis resistance fighters of the Second World War, this corner of the Gard has a collective history that has, for years, made it a left-wing stronghold, with a strong activist and union presence. But today, employment figures and a sense of abandonment of public services speak for themselves.

You have 54.72% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.