Will Marine Le Pen be re-elected in an armchair on Sunday June 12 in the first round of the legislative elections? In any case, this is its stated objective, in this 11th constituency of Pas-de-Calais where it won in 2017, with more than 58% of the votes against the candidate invested at the time by La République en Marche.
Marine le Pen, re-elected in the first round? – the report by Hadrien Bect
to listen
Five years later, the game seems played in advance for the former presidential finalist. So much so that Marine Le Pen now fears demobilization: “those who take the responsibility of abstaining on June 12 will have until the end of their miserable days, to deplore their civic indifference!”, she launches in the gymnasium of Hénin-Beaumont, in front of a few hundred activists gathered for the only meeting of the campaign. The injunction resonates both locally and nationally.
The applause is sluggish. A few tricolor flags flutter gently. However, we are here in the heart of the stronghold of Marine Le Pen. Ultra popular, the candidate exceeded 63% in the second round of the presidential election. It prevents. “There is still time to prevent Macron from having all the powers and to let an undivided leadership prevail in our country!”.
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The campaign started late. Marine Le Pen scoured the markets methodically, every weekend, between smiles and selfie sessions, in this historically left-wing land. With the objective of sending Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Emmanuel Macron back to back.
Well established, his opponent on the left, Marine Tondelier (Nupes), from Hénin-Beaumont, is in all the elections. Always present, always beaten. His arguments ? Marine Le Pen is not interested in her chosen land. “We need a deputy for real, because we have to speed up the renovation of mining towns, because we have to get to the truth about pollution and health around the former Metaleurop site”.
According to her, Marine Le Pen failed to embody the local files on this constituency. “If it bothers her, if she’s interested in other things, let her do something else. And we’ll take care of here.”
The duel therefore seems to be settling in between Marine Le Pen and the candidate of the Union des gauches. “A duo”says the candidate of the presidential majority, Alexandrine Pintus. “We have two Marines who spend their time making punchlines, but who do not make proposals”. Even if it means sending them back to back: “They have the same project at European level and the same ambition: to be in opposition and vote against everything.”
The candidate of the Radical Left Party, Maxime Legrand, also attacks Marine le Pen’s record. “What has it done for the mining area in terms of mobility, in terms of higher education, in terms of employment, in terms of health?”. He repeats it: attack “on the background”rather than on the person.
Because one observation emerges here, we are not attacking the candidate of the National Rally on her ideas or her values. Far from the attempts at demonization that can exist at the national level… Impossible to do otherwise, justifies the candidate of the right and the center, Anne-Sophie Taszarek: “We live in a territory where the National Rally scores high. It’s usual here. There have been no answers to the problems of the territory”.
Anyway, even if the candidates wanted to attack her and her person directly, it would be difficult: the former presidential finalist refused confrontations in the media with his competitors. Justification of one of his relatives: “it’s not his level”.
In the 11th constituency of Pas-de-Calais the different candidates are:
Léa CARON – ECO (Animalist Party)
Dominique GAI – DXG (Workers struggle)
Gautier WEINMANN – DXG (Far Left)
Maxime LEGRAND – CEO
Marine LE PEN – RN (RN)
Marine TONDELIER – ECO (Nupes)
Lahcen RAÏSS – DIV (UDMF)
Anne-Sophie TASZAREK – UDI (UDI)
Alexandrine PINTUS – ENS (Together!)