What Did We Learn From the First Round of the Legislative Elections?
What Did We Learn From the First Round of the Legislative Elections?
We're entering the end of the (immediate) road in a highly contested and volatile election.
This Sunday, the French went to their local mairie, school or other polling station in order to decide upon who will be representing them in the Asemblée national.
But what happened? What were the results? What were the big takeaways? and what does it all mean?
The First Round Results
Putting aside the arguments on the count, which boil down to the NUPES wanting to add candidates who aren’t part of their coalition to their tally, Ensemble! came in first place with 25.75%, narrowly beating the NUPES coalition who earned 25.66% of the vote, setting both parties up for a tight competition.
Coming in third place, the Rassemblement National came out with one of their best ever results, earning 18.68% of the total votes, beating Les Républicains and their allies who earned 10.42%.
The big loser of the night, however, was Eric Zemmour, whose party Reconquete failed to earn the votes required to earn any seat, and whose fellow candidates lost in every seat they attempted to contest.
Record Abstention
One of the big pieces of news this year was that the abstention rate is currently sky high, with an abstention rate of 52.5% that has caused some people to even question the legitimacy of the election itself.
One of the more concerning, if unverifiable, claims, is that the abstention for young people below the age of 35 may have been as high as 70%, which raises the question of what has gone so wrong to disenfranchise the youth so much, and what exactly can be done to bring them back into more active political participation?
Five Deputies Were Elected Outright
Reaching the threshold of 50% to be elected outright (with the correct minimum participation rate), five deputies were elected outright in the first round, with four coming from the NUPES coalition, and 1 coming from Ensemble!
The winners were as follows:
NUPES
Alexis Corbière - Seine-Saint-Denis's 7th constituency
Danièle Obono - Paris 17th constituency
Sophia Chikirou - Paris's 6th constituency
Sarah Legrain - Paris's 16th constituency
Ensemble!
Yannick Favennec - Mayenne's 3rd constituency
Some Big Names Fell at the First Hurdle
Aside from Eric Zemmour, there were some more surprising results of the first round were the big names who failed to make it to the second round, amongst them some high-ranking members of the presidential coalition.
Jean-Michel Blanquer, the former education minister, found himself a few hundred votes short of second place with 18,89% of the vote, coming in third behind the NUPES Candidate Bruno Nottin (19,43%), with both being behind the Rassemblement National candidate Thomas Ménagé (31,45%),.
Having suffered a turbulent campaign, including having whipped cream thrown in his face by two teachers, this was a disappointing loss for the former minister, but this wasn’t the only big loss.
Another loss for the presidential majority was the former housing minister, Emmanuelle Wargon, who similarly failed to make it to the second round with 18,93%, coming in behind the NUPES candidate Erik Pagès (28,16%) and the Les Républicains candidate (37,48%).
What many mistakenly assumed, either through confusion or or misinformation, was that many of the ministers would have an easier time, but sadly, this hasn’t been the case, and many of the losses of more prominent names will be good fuel for the remaining candidates fighting for a seat in the Assemblée.
The Far-Left Use Anti-Establishment Populism
Having claimed their electoral victory far too early, La France Insoumise found themselves falling to second place by a ‘handful’ of votes, and unfortunately took this very badly.
Appearing on RMC television, the elected La France Insoumise MP, Alexis Corbière, chose to lead the charge for his party, claiming that the Interior Ministry had falsified election data in an attack that would undermine trust in public institutions that wass already strained thanks to the volatile campaign.
Not being the only LFI to take this tactic, many of his colleagues followed suite, with Jean-Luc Mélenchon And yet, the rest of the left sit with their hands over their mouths as people degrade French political structures.
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