Gabriel Attal’s last trip before the second round, in Nièvre

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal went to Nièvre on Thursday to support an outgoing MP against the National Rally who won 40% in the first round. In this former stronghold of socialism, the Prime Minister is throwing his last forces into blocking the RN candidate.

“We’re counting on you on Sunday.” At least Gabriel Attal will have tried everything this week by going to support candidates of the presidential majority on the ground. On Thursday July 4, he went to Nevers, in the 1^e constituency of Nièvre, where there are fears of a tidal wave of RN.

Here, after the first round of the legislative elections, the outgoing MP Perrine Goulet (MoDem) benefits from the withdrawal of the left, but the National Rally won 40% of the votes everywhere in this rural department, which has become the symbol of the “diagonal of emptiness”.

In this territory, once the electoral stronghold of François Mitterrand, Gabriel Attal is therefore taking up his role as a socialist activist again. “We are committed to what we can do, that’s what sets us apart from others.”he assures on a market, repeating his credo on the false promises that we hear elsewhere. Without naming them, he no longer targets France Insoumise but only the RN. According to him, “The challenge of this second round is to avoid the risk of a majority dominated by the National Rally”, and the Nièvre puts the republican front to the test.

After going to Chartres on Tuesday, to Senlis on Wednesday, Gabriel Attal makes his last trip before the second round, and the Prime Minister throws his last forces into the battle: “Every day brings its share of revelations about the National Rally candidates”he said, recalling the case of candidates posing with a Nazi cap, or declaring that a person of Maghreb origin “should not have had an important place in France”. “Do we realize that the issue today is that these candidates could tomorrow sit in the National Assembly, or even be in the government of France?” he hammers. Of all the times the French have come together to block the far right, this is the first time that Jordan Bardella’s party has come this close to gaining power.