It is difficult to make a choice just days before the second round of the cantonal elections for UMP voters in the Côte d’Azur who will not have a candidate in the second round in their canton, as is the case in the third and fifth cantons of Nice.
Voting directives have not been clearer on the Côte d’Azur than at the national level, with a Charles-Ange Ginesy who does not seem bothered by a UMP voter opting for an FN candidate, and a Christian Estrosi who has not called for a republican front, while the PS and the left in the Côte d’Azur are calling for a blockade against the National Front in the context of a second round opposing a right-wing candidate to an FN candidate. Only Eric Ciotti, President of the General Council and re-elected in the first round, has not taken a position on this matter.
And yet, the UMP voter will have to make a choice in good conscience this Sunday at the polling stations in the Côte d’Azur, between two candidates who do not belong to their political formation, or even diametrically opposed, as in the case of the 3rd canton of Nice, where the face-off will be between the communist Jacques Victor and the nationalist Lionel Tivoli. A great political gap for a ballot that would have deserved a stronger position from the local leaders of the right in the Côte d’Azur.
In the fifth canton of Nice, it will be PRG Patrick Mottard against another FN candidate, Alexandre Mascagni, and there too, no specific directive. Certainly, it is hard to imagine these two Nice cantons falling into the FN’s hands, but is the risk really well-calculated by a local right that might mistakenly open the door to new opposition in the departmental assembly?
“Of course I remain attentive to the voting instructions of my party, but I will not vote National Front.” B., questioned at the exit of a UMP office, explains that she will opt for a left-wing candidate on Sunday and that it will be her first “…and I hope the last time” that it happens to her.
A cruel dilemma, therefore, for right-wing voters who, this Sunday, will have the choice between facing up or facing the front!
