French elections: Strong mobilization with voters wanting 'change and order' or 'to block' the far right
FeatureThe turnout is expected to be much higher than in previous elections and can be explained as much by 'fear of what might happen tonight' as by a desire for change.
"Oh, you are here? It's good to see you. I hope everything goes well," says one voter as he leaves the polling booth. The regulars at the Gerson school polling station in Vieux-Lyon (Old Lyon) can't believe it. The clockmaker of Saint Paul (the real one) presides over polling station 530. "Everything's going to be fine. Welcome! This is where it all happens," replies Philippe Carry with a felt hat perched on his head and silk scarf around his neck.
Known for his action against the identitarian far-right movement undermining his neighborhood, the original character in Bertrand Tavernier's film ("L'Horloger de Saint-Paul", 1974) sows joy in the office. "People are afraid of what might happen tonight. We have to reassure them," confides the craftsman, without transgressing the neutrality of his function for a day.
In an area battered by ultra-right-wing groups, seeing him as master of the electoral clocks is a source of delight for the public. From the polling station window, you can see the closed, anonymous door of La Traboule, the bar of the identitarian association dissolved on June 26 by the Interior Ministry – along with Groupe union défense (GUD, a far-right students' union), Top Sport Rhône and Jonas Paris.
Across France, voters turned out in large numbers on Sunday, June 30 for the first round of the legislative elections. Voter turnout stood at 65.8%, according to estimates from the Ipsos Talan Institute for France Télévisions, Radio France, France24/RFI, LCP Assemblée Nationale.
At the Gerson school in Vieux-Lyon, the pace of voting is high; proxies, numerous. "We need to keep a remembrance of this important moment," says the clockmaker. Emmanuel Macron's decision to dissolve the National Assembly after the European elections on June 9 could indeed bring the far right to power in the second round on July 7. A first since 1940.
On the morning of Sunday, June 30, the inhabitants of Meistratzheim, 6e constituency of Bas-Rhin, crowd in front of the village hall to go and vote. In this village of 1,500 inhabitants, in the heart of sauerkraut territory, the list led by far-right leader Jordan Bardella (Rassemblement National, RN) scored 49.4 % in the European elections. The incumbent member of parliament, 28-year-old Louise Morel (Ensemble-Mouvement démocrate, centrist) had secured only a few more votes than her RN opponent in 2022.
The far-right candidate this time is Vincent Coussedière, a philosophy professor who teaches in the Haut-Rhin region. He is unknown in the constituency but that's no problem for Albert Franzen, 66, a former employee of the Kronenbourg brewery. It's not the first time he has voted for the RN, even though for legislative elections he "generally favors right-wing MPs with roots in the region. This time, [he's] voting for national reasons: purchasing power, insecurity, immigration." The pensioner admits that he is not confronted with the latter two issues in this quiet village, "But just because we're not directly concerned doesn't mean it's not important," he justifies. "It's all we see in the media."
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