after the 1st round, the Rassemblement national establishes itself as the second political force in Alsace

This is one of the main lessons of the first round of the legislative elections in Alsace: behind Ensemble!, the presidential party, it is the National Rally (RN) which takes second place in the elections in Alsace. The party has arrived far ahead of the Les Républicains party yet historically very well established in the region, Sunday, June 12.

Historical scores

A number symbolizes this breakthrough: RN candidates are qualified in eight of the fifteen Alsatian constituencies, against only one five years ago. They even came out on top in three of them.

“I was pleasantly surprised by our results in the first round“, admits Christian Zimmermann, himself who came first with 20.38% votes in the 3rd constituency of Haut-Rhin, ahead of the candidate Together! Didier Lemaire (19.66%).

While abstention is up compared to the 2017 legislative elections in Alsace, the National Rally has won voters in both departments. Just over 30,000 additional voters slipped an RN ballot for these elections.

It’s not gonna translate to siege

“It bodes well for the future and for finally placing an Alsatian RN deputy in the National Assembly. It is not possible that we only have Macronist deputies, when we represent an important breeding ground voters in Alsace”continues Christian Zimmermann.

But for the political scientist Philippe Breton, director of the Observatory of political life in Alsace, it will not be not enough for an RN deputy to come out on top in the second round and rallies the National Assembly. “It’s a political force, including on the ground, but it’s not going to translate into a siege. It’s the somewhat byzantine French mechanism that means that almost half of Alsatian voters will not be represented, which creates frustrations but also abstention”.

According to him, like the other parties, the National Rally has also failed to mobilize abstainers, which represent 53.85% of those registered in the Bas-Rhin and 56.19% in the Haut-Rhin.

Other nuance to these good results: the number of RN voters in Alsace is in fact about the same as in the 2012 legislative elections. It is the other political forces that are doing less well.