The left loses the Senate. According to the latest calculations, the right would win 24 seats and now hold at least 185 seats out of a total of 348. A very large majority. This was the main issue of the elections aimed at renewing half of the upper chamber.
The UMP now has 136 seats, the UDI 38, and there are also 11 other right-leaning seats. The PS finds itself with 112 seats, the PCF 18, EELV 10, RDSE 9. There are also 11 other left-leaning seats.
For the first time in its history, the National Front enters the Senate with two elected representatives: David Rachline in Var and Stéphane Ravier in Bouches-du-Rhône.
In Alpes-Maritimes, the left retains its senatorial seat; Marc Daunis is re-elected. On the UMP side, the party will have only 3 seats and not 4 or 5 as hoped for. Elected are Dominique Estrosi-Sassone, Louis Nègre, and Colette Giudicelli.
The outgoing senator, Jean-Pierre Leleux, who led a “parallel” right-wing list, also retains his mandate.
The departmental figures are in: Out of 2028 voters, only 2007 showed up to cast their ballot, and…1985 expressed a valid vote. This is already the first anomaly that hides many others.
In fact, if the election of the three candidates of the UMP list (Dominique Estrosi-Sassone, Louis Nègre, Colette Giudicelli) was practically assured, the right-wing party could legitimately aim for the grand slam or, at least, a fourth seat given the number of elected and delegated from its ranks: Between 1,250 and 1,300. Plus a substantial number of voters labeled as other right.
The surprise comes from here: The list of the neo-senator Dominique Estrosi-Sassone gathered only 852 votes, which is significantly a third less!
If the vote is secret and one can only make assumptions, it seems evident that a good number of “loyalists” have switched to non-orthodox lists, particularly in support of the list led by outgoing senator Jean-Pierre Leleux.
Leader of the list in the previous election, sacrificed for internal UMP reasons, he makes a stunning comeback and, ousted, returns through the main door with a resounding personal score: 430 votes, thus obtaining on his own half of the votes of the official list. Quite an achievement.
The fifth place was contested by a few votes (236 against 233) and it was Marc Daunis who won the sprint, allowing the embattled left in the azure region to maintain a small spark in national institutions through his presence.
Despite the presence of two other left lists (communists and ecologists), the mayor of Valbonne managed to capture almost double the votes promised to him, a sign of personal appeal that certainly allowed him to draw from the theoretically opposing camp (how many voters from the Antibes area?)
Olivier Bettati, the “renegade” for his former UMP slate mates, narrowly missed the surprise of surprises but confirmed his ability to capture numerous dissenting right-wing votes, more than one might have imagined.
To conclude, the FN improved its traditional score but without much fanfare, while FdG (69 votes) and Greens-Ecologists (30) did not go beyond mere token participation.
Such modest results automatically trigger a reflection on the utility of these lists.
However, the outspoken satisfaction of the leaders of these formations suggests that rather than participating in an election, these parties wanted to express a statement and incidentally provide some small services to the socialist list… by preventing it from winning for national political reasons. Love is not in the “nearby,” what!
In summary, this electoral evening did not provoke any change in the panorama and local balances. The faces are still the same, a sign that the azure oligarchy in power is transversal and resistant to the winds of change, relying on a solid foundation.
The left just barely saves itself and can breathe even if its inconsistency remains visible in all its severity.
As for the right, its result should resemble the “minimum minimorum” and the fragmentation of potential votes shows that, more than a party, it is the sum of personal or clan fiefdoms.
Moreover, the attempt to replace the absence of ideology with mere perpetual movement seems illusory: the consequence is that everyone chooses which foot to dance on… as we saw again today!
