While the presidential election is primarily a national election, as we elect the President of the Republic, the local results are also important and deserve to be read and analyzed to understand the opinion shifts of voters who cast their votes in their residential municipalities.
The Alpes-Maritimes are known for being the most right-leaning department in France. In every election, whether national, departmental, or municipal, candidates from right-wing parties (republicans and centrists, which are essentially the same here with only a change in label to pretend they are two separate parties) achieve the best scores. They hold almost all the seats.
But the result of this election day is a significant signal: Marine Le Pen emerges as the frontrunner in the ballot, with 27.75% of the votes, narrowly beating Franรงois Fillon (27.39%). National winner Emmanuel Macron performs well and confirms the broad support of an opinion vote, despite lacking an organized structure: 19.04%. The radical left candidate achieves an interesting score in a territory that is not favorable to him: 14.96%.
Catastrophic situation for the socialist candidate (3.58%), even being surpassed by Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (4.28%).
Another noteworthy signal: medium-sized towns, such as Menton, Saint-Laurent-du-Var, Cagnes-sur-Mer, and Grasse, Carros, saw the FN candidate take the lead in the vote.
A more traditional vote, albeit narrowly, in Nice where Franรงois Fillon leads Marine Le Pen by a few decimal points: 26.1% against 25.38%.
A comfortable situation, considering the context, for Emmanuel Macron, who stands at 20.52%, while Jean-Luc Mรฉlenchon improves his departmental result by two and a half points: 17.34% for him.
No comfort at all for Benoรฎt Hamon’s position: 4.23%. What can be said?
