PARIS — In regional elections on Sunday, mainstream politicians dealt a stinging defeat to France’s extreme right, dashing its ambitions of taking control of a region for the first time and curbing its momentum ahead of the presidential race next year.
The arrangement of the two rounds of voting over separate weekends, according to Le Pen, was “disastrous and unpredictable.” Nonetheless, the National Rally’s performance in the critical runoffs on Sunday indicated that the party remains unpopular with many voters. According to the Ifop polling agency, it received less than 20% of national votes, behind both the mainstream right and the combined showing of green and leftist candidates.
Voters put their political differences aside in order to prevent a National Rally breakthrough, just as they had done in past national and local elections.
On the right, Xavier Bertrand, the victorious incumbent, boasted that the National Rally had not only been “stopped” in his region, the Hauts-de-France in the north, but had also been “made to recede greatly.”
Laurent Wauquiez, another right-wing winner, said that the extreme right had been given “no room to grow” in his area of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
However, voter interest was lukewarm at best, with just one-third of eligible voters casting ballots. Among the few who voted, several bemoaned the fact that young people, in particular, appeared to be squandering the last chance to vote until the presidential election in 2022.
Suzette Lefèvre, a retiree who voted in Saint-Quentin, northern France, remarked, “It’s disgusting.” “People aren’t following in the footsteps of our parents who fought for us.”
The National Rally and Le Pen’s prospects of achieving a regional breakthrough were harmed by a record-low turnout of 33% in the first round of voting on June 20.
The party swept the first round of the 2015 regional elections, but it was defeated in the runoff when parties and voters united against it.