Qualified despite legal troubles. While the electoral campaign for the legislative elections has brought out the drawers of the disputes with the justice of the candidates, some obtained enough votes in the first round, Sunday June 12, to climb to the second. Others, on the contrary, were shunned at the polls. Franceinfo summarizes their results according to their political formation.
>> Results, reactions, analyses… Follow the campaign before the second round of the 2022 legislative elections
Together !
She is the subject of an investigation opened for “breach of trust” by the prosecution of Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique), following an unpaid loan to his parliamentary collaborator: Sandrine Josso was nominated candidate of the coalition of the presidential majority Together! despite an outcry from activists. She still managed to qualify for the second round in the 7th constituency of Loire-Atlantique, with 22.48% of the vote, behind Véronique Mahé, her rival from the New People’s Ecological and Social Union (Nupes), which won 24.26% of the vote.
It is on social networks thatYves Bléin, outgoing MP for the 14th constituency of the Rhône, aroused the ire of internet users when he announced his investiture by Ensemble!. Because he is the subject of a complaint for sexual harassment filed in November 2021. “For me, this case remained without follow-up. I was not asked by the authorities on this subject”he told the Progress May 16. He seems to have convinced the voters since he came second with 25.47% of the ballots. He thus finds himself, in the second round, facing Idir Boumertit (35.76%), the candidate of the New People’s Ecological and Social Union (Nupes) who replaced Taha Bouhafs, in withdrawal after accusations of sexual assault.
In contrast, Sira Sulla, the outgoing MP for the 4th constituency of Seine-Maritime, who represented herself under the colors of the presidential majority, was beaten. She obtained only 17.99% of the votes and came in fourth position. Accused of acts of moral harassment by one of her parliamentary assistants, she is awaiting judgment on September 6, after the case has been heard by the industrial tribunal of Rouen.
Since the summer of 2020, the deputy for Paris Laetitia Avia is under investigation for “moral harassment”, after complaints from former employees evoking repeated humiliations and sexist, racist or homophobic remarks. This seems to have had little effect on the voters who granted him 27.94% of the vote in the 8th district of Paris. Laetitia Avia is nevertheless far behind the Nupes candidate, Eva Sas (41.70%), but she manages to qualify for the second round.
New People’s Ecological and Social Union
Targeted by a preliminary investigation for “embezzlement of public funds” and “receiving”, the former French Communist Party (PCF) presidential candidate Fabien Roussel topped the first round of legislative elections in the 20th constituency in the North, with 34.13% of the vote. The outgoing deputy will face the candidate of the National Rally, Guillaume Florquin, who won 32.64% of the vote, on Sunday June 19.
The Republicans
Deputy in the 1st constituency of the Territoire de Belfort, Ian Boucard appeared again despite his conviction “to a fine of 7,500 euros for having produced and distributed false leaflets as part of the campaign for the 2017 legislative elections”. He succeeded in his bet: the outgoing deputy came out of the first round in the lead, with 27.26% of the vote. However, he has not finished with justice: the prosecution, which had required three years of ineligibility, appealed. The appeal trial has been postponed twice but is expected to take place in September.
He was seeking a new mandate in the 5th constituency of Vaucluse despite a conviction for the dismissal of a collaborator: the outgoing deputy Julien Aubert is eliminated in the first round. He comes in fourth position and collects only 17.17% of the ballots cast.
Reconquest!
On the other hand, on the side ofIn the far-right Reconquête! party, none of the candidates who had trouble with the law reached the second round. Eric Zemmour, who chairs the party, came third in the 4th constituency of Var, with 23.19% of the votes cast behind the outgoing MP Together! Sereine Mauborgne (28.51%) and RN Philippe Lottiaux (24.74%).
On his side, Jeremiah Piano only came in fifth place in his constituency, with 7.11% of the vote. The Identity Generation activist, who presented himself in the 11th district of Bouches-du-Rhône, has a heavy criminal record. In May 2020, he was fined for listing “Immigration. Racaille. Islamization? Reconquest”, on several panels in Aix-en-Provence. The following year, he was convicted of “inciting racial hatred and discrimination” twice. And he will appear in November with 17 former members of Génération identitaire for “voluntary violence in meetings”, after the muscular invasion of the premises of the NGO SOS Méditerranée in Marseille, in October 2018.
Indicted for public defamation after a complaint by footballer Karim Benzema linked to two tweets from 2020, Damien Rieu does not do better in the 4th constituency of the Alpes-Maritimes. It climbs to fifth position with 10.66% of ballots cast. He is eclipsed by the candidate of the National Rally, who comes first in this constituency. Three days before the first round, he staged himself by filming himself crossing the Franco-Italian border to denounce illegal immigration.
national rally
The case opposed him to the daughter of the former mayor of Hénin-Beaumont (Pas-de-Calais), Eugène Binaisse. The deputy National Rally (RN) Bruno Bilde had written, in 2016, in the municipal magazine, that Florence Binaisse had been hired in a neighboring town hall. The judges considered it to be false and defamatory at first instance and then on appeal. His conviction therefore became final in 2019, when his cassation appeal was dismissed. The voters of the 12th district of Pas-de-Calais obviously did not hold it against him since the outgoing deputy Bruno Bilde came out on top in the first round with 41.82% of the vote.
In the 11th district of Pas-de-Calais, Marine Le Pen achieves the same tour de force and wins 53.96% of the votes cast. The former president of the RN and presidential candidate was sentenced in 2014 to pay 1,500 euros in damages to Georges Tron and AFP, while suing them for defamation. In addition, she is still under investigation for “embezzlement of public funds” in the context of the affair of the parliamentary assistants of the National Front. As Wallerand de Saint-Just, candidate in the 10th district of Paris. But he only gets 5.51% of the vote and will therefore not be present in the second round.
The dissidents of the presidential majority
Due to their legal setbacks, not all of them had the precious sesame to present themselves under the banner of Ensemble! What does it matter for some, who have decided to enter into dissidence. This is the case of Stephane Trompille : the outgoing deputy LREM of the 4th district of Ain did not obtain the nomination of his party. He is likely to bear the costs of his conviction in 2020 for sexual harassment of a former collaborator, a decision which he appealed. His strategy did not materialize at the polls since he only gleaned 9.40% of the vote, far behind the candidates of the National Rally and Nupes.
Outgoing MP for the 5th constituency of Gironde, Benoit Simian, tried on March 24 for acts of harassment against his ex-wife, does not do better. He presented himself under the colors of Libertés et Territoires facing a candidate invested by the presidential majority. On the justice side, Benoît Simian will be fixed on his fate on June 23, the day when the deliberation should be rendered. The public prosecutor’s office requested a sentence of eighteen months’ imprisonment, together with a probationary suspension of three years and three years of ineligibility. He was severely beaten and won only 3.68% of the votes cast.
Outgoing MP for the 9th constituency of Seine-Maritime, Stephanie Kerbarh suffers the same setback: it obtains only 3.35% of the votes. She had been excluded from LREM after the 2021 regional elections due to a conviction in December 2019 for unfair dismissal of her parliamentary collaborator.
Nathalie Elimas is also recalibrated in the first round. MoDem MP for the 6th constituency of Val-d’Oise, Secretary of State for Priority Education under the government of Jean Castex, she has been targeted since March by an investigation by the Paris prosecutor’s office for “moral harassment and abuse” on five ex-collaborators. Nathalie Elimas denies the facts and filed a complaint for “slanderous denunciation”. The opening of this investigation cost the MP her nomination for a new campaign, because the majority chose to invest Estelle Folest in her chosen constituency. The latter qualified for the second round while Nathalie Elimas collected only 8.62% of the ballots.
The labelless
Germain Gaiffe, candidate with an atypical course to say the least, finished dead last in the 2nd constituency of Vaucluse. Sentenced to thirty years’ imprisonment for murder, the “Montauban skinner” only collected 0.14% of the vote (i.e. 59 ballots slipped into the ballot box) and saw, after twenty-four years behind bars, his dream to be elected deputy move away.