Muriel Marland Militello (UMP – 2nd district), Rudy Salles (The New Center – 3rd), Jean-Claude Guibal (UMP – 4th), Christian Estrosi (UMP – 5th), Lionnel Luca (UMP – 6th), Jean Léonetti (UMP – 7th), and Michèle Tabarot (UMP – 9th) emerged as significant victors from this first round which favored the presidential majority representatives. Decisive scores that left no chance for opposing candidates who were likely hoping for a presence in the second week. The massive abstention of over 40% of the voters from the Azur region was certainly fatal for the outsiders, and with an overwhelming majority (from 53% to 64%), the “blue” candidates reinforced the presidential election results.
The first district was one of the standout districts in the Azur legislative elections.
The exclusion of the incumbent UMP deputy, Jérôme Rivière, finally eliminated in favor of Eric Ciotti who came out in pole position from the first round against Patrick Allemand who will need a true miracle to overturn a very blue tide. With nearly 70% of the votes, the two candidates took the lion’s share, leaving the National Front of Rémy François and the Modem/UDF of Hervé Caël just above and below the 5% mark. The PCF and Robert Injey totaled a little over 1000 votes while the Nice identitarians ranked seventh with Philippe Vardon at 2.29%. The other candidates are below 2%, thus totaling fewer than 400 ballots in their name.
It was undoubtedly the surprise of these elections, and Dominique Boy Mottard must regret the record high abstention rate of this first round as he sees his main competitor Muriel Marland Militello reelected with a comfortable lead of 54.28% of the votes against the 21.25% of the socialist candidate. Thus, the blue wave swamped the second to make MMM the leading lady of the district. The National Front of Patricia Pellero was greatly outdistance with only 2320 votes granting her less than 7% of the votes. Céline Lacroix and the UDF Modem just surpassed 5% with 1955 ballots.
Therefore, three women were on the podium of a district that was indeed one of the most feminized in the region. Gender parity just needed to maintain itself, and it did well in the second.
By joining the presidential majority, the incumbent UDF deputy, Rudy Salles, made a more than wise choice as he secured his reelection in the first round with a more than comfortable lead over his rival from the Radical Left Party, Elodie Jomat. Whereas in the 2002 election, the National Front was second, experiencing a significant decline this time, dropping below the 8% mark whereas in 2002 it had made it to the second round with 23.77% of the votes.
