In a favorable national context, the most right-wing department of France couldn’t miss the appointment. Eric Ciotti was re-elected in the first round in the Tourrette-Levens canton even though the score isn’t very flattering (51.36%).
The same performance among public figures with the Mayor of Cannes, David Lisnard, who is credited with more than 56%.
The other two national electees, Colette Giudicelli in Menton and Dominique Estrosi-Sassone in Nice 3, will, on the contrary, have to face voters again.
The UMP records two other elected pairs: in Mandelieu and Villeneuve-Loubet.
The Union of the Right lists overwhelmingly won the derby against their new rivals from the National Front, which becomes the department’s second party ahead of a disheartened PS that needs serious revision and a marginalized Left Front.
These two parties risk having no representative in this community and rely on saving a pair in Grasse 2 for the first and in Contes for the communists.
In Nice, the “Nice Together” lists had no electees in the first round, which is not a very good result when considering that Christian Estrosi had sent all well-established municipal and metropolitan troops into the battle in their territory.
Next Sunday, there will be nine runoffs between UMP and National Front candidates. In 2 of the 9 cantons (4 and 7), FN representatives came out on top in the first round.
Absentees (which, when looked at closely, remain the leading party with about 50% of the votes) will be crucial in the final outcome. The transfer of votes will also be essential: will the republican vote proclaimed by the left hold up against a departmental fascistic right? Isn’t the UMP’s neither-nor really a wink to its very conservative electorate to definitively end the much-hated left? And isn’t the porosity between the right and far-right electorates actually a fatal attraction for some, or even many?
The ballots will tell us.
