Left-wing MP François Ruffin, was re-elected for a third term in the Assemblée Nationale, on Sunday, July 7, with 51.21% of votes cast, in the second round of France's parliamentary elections, edging out the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party candidate, Nathalie Ribeiro-Billet (48.13%). In the first round, he had come second in the 1st constituency of the Somme, with 33.92% of the vote – behind the RN candidate (40.69%), but ahead of the presidential coalition's candidate in this constituency, Albane Branlant (22.68%). Branlant had withdrawn her candidacy after the first round "faced with the risk of the Rassemblement National." "I see a difference between political adversaries and the enemies of the Republic," she declared.
Ruffin, a former journalist and an MP since 2017, had been re-elected in 2022 with 61% of the vote, facing the same rival. Yet he has come up against the ever-growing strength of the RN in his constituency, with the far-right party scoring 44% there in the June 9, 2024, European elections. Now at odds with members of his former parliamentary group, La France Insoumise (LFI, radical left), and with its founder, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, he has also had to contend with his constituents' rejection of what the LFI leader represents.