French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin was re-elected in his northern stronghold, the 10th constituency of the Nord department, on Sunday, July 7, in the second round of the country's parliamentary elections, where he has been elected since 2012. He announced the victory with a post on X, thanking his constituents who "massively re-elected him to represent them at the Assemblée Nationale." He beat the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party candidate, Bastien Verbrugghe. Before the first round, Darmanin had announced that he would leave the government if elected to the Assemblée Nationale, to build "a new project."
In the first round of voting, he obtained 36.06% of the vote, just 837 votes ahead of the RN candidate (34.31%), while the candidate for the left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire alliance, Leslie Mortreux, obtained 24.83% and also qualified to run for the second round. Between the two rounds, however, Mortreux, who had been nominated by La France Insoumise (LFI, radical left) withdrew her candidacy to block the far right.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.