Shaken by the electoral result of the first round, the right—having finally rediscovered their republican roots—and the socialists managed not to concede a single region to the National Front (FN).
Due to the lack of reciprocal withdrawal resulting from Nicolas Sarkozy’s “neither-nor” stance, the Republican Front transformed into the “republican forces,” enabling the Republicans (LR) to win the three regions which otherwise would have certainly or very likely been lost.
The left sacrifices regions where it couldn’t win, but in return, it puts pressure on the right by exacerbating its internal contradictions between its centrist-Juppéist wing and its right-wing that Nicolas Sarkozy is attempting to embody.
All opinion polls show that the ideological boundaries are becoming increasingly porous between the voters of the Republicans and those of the National Front.
Further evidence of this is the results in Île-de-France and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, where the “strategic” voting in the second round allowed the LR candidates to claim victory. In the first case, the demonstration is even more glaring: the FN received 10% less this Sunday than in the first round.
The leaders on the right won’t be able to indefinitely maintain such a contradictory tension between the ideological map of their voters and the political map imposed upon them.
It is evident in the new political landscape of France that, while the left will always exist (whether in the majority or minority), it is by no means certain that there will always be room for two right-wing factions, or if ultimately, one will prevail over the other.
