Abstain or vote Macron “to save France”… In Montpellier, the puzzle for Mélenchonist voters

Emmanuel Macron had just appeared on the screen, interviewed by a journalist on a news channel, when the Novelty server went upstairs. “Do you want me to turn off the TV?” It is already not with joy of heart that the fifteen activists of La France insoumise (LFI) met on Monday, April 11, in this bar in downtown Montpellier (Hérault). Around the table, only one subject of discussion: the second round of the presidential election in which their candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, third with 21.95% of the votes, will not participate, this time again. But with such a score, the leader of LFI finds himself in the position of kingmaker, in the game of vote transfers. This is why Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, the two finalists in the second round, have been increasing their appeals to their 7 million voters in recent days.

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A first hand rises. Julien Colet, “rebellious” leader of the first district of Hérault, launches out: “Me, I know what I will do. As Jean-Luc Mélenchon said on Sunday evening, we do not give a single voice to the far right. Period.” “The same”, engages Stéphanie Andral, from the third constituency, “not a single voice on the far right”. Nathalie Oziol, the local representative for the Popular Union, the new movement launched by Jean-Luc Mélenchon for the presidential election, sums things up in her own way: “For me too, same instruction. But I think we all agree on that point, right?

A consultation on the internet currently organized by La Franthis rebellious, but reserved for its militants, must soon give a first indication of the position to adopt for the second round. One sointernal poll with a single question: “Which position do you want to adopt for the second round?” And three possible answers: abstention, white vote and the Emmanuel Macron ballot. The vote in favor of Marine Le Pen is not proposed. Moreover, according to the Ipsos-Sopra Steria barometer for franceinfo and Le Parisien-Today in France, published on Wednesday April 13, 37% of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s voters said they wanted to vote for Emmanuel Macron, 18% for Marine Le Pen, and 45% were considering abstaining or had not yet decided.

The stakes are high, and in Montpellier perhaps even more than elsewhere. It is here that Jean-Luc Mélenchon achieved one of his highest scores in the first round: he came first with 40.73% of the vote, nine points more than during the last presidential election, in 2017, right here. So there are 47,207 voters who are being asked to make a choice by April 24.

“Of course we discuss it with our loved ones, of course we talk about it around us, murmur Julien Colet, professor of history and geography, still sitting upstairs at Novelty. My mother voted Mélenchon in the first round, and she will vote Macron in the second. For her, it will come naturally.” Conversely, Stéphanie Andral says that it’s not “not so easy for [s]we son. He is 19 years old, and what do we offer him? Or misery: Macron. Either someone who hates the other: Le Pen. For the moment, he is leaning towards abstention.

He is not the only one. Esteban, who had also reserved the very first ballot of his life for Jean-Luc Mélenchon, will not return to the voting booth in ten days. “Le Pen on one side, and Macron on the other, sorry but it’s not a choice”, regrets the 19-year-old student, in the second year of a computer science degree, crossed at the end of class in front of the University of Sciences. “Macron, he was hardly interested in students for five years. And now, we should vote for him? It’s easy. So I choose not to choose, and I do it knowingly. ”

In La Paillade, a popular district in the northwest of Montpellier, the leader of LFI obtained more than 70% of the votes in certain polling stations on Sunday evening. “Jean-Luc” is not in the second round, but his face is still stuck in 10 by 10 on a traffic light, in A3 on an electrical transformer, and above all, in all discussions. Squatting on the balustrade of the “Halles de la Paillade” tramway, a shopping bag filled with fruit and vegetables in each hand, Driss is not fooled: “We didn’t see the president’s friends during the whole campaign.says, half-tease, half-serious, the thirty-something. Nobody, not an activist, not a leaflet. And there, they would come to show off because our vote interests them… It shows. Me, I wanted Mélenchon to be in the second round. It’s not there, I’ll stop there. No-no-to.”

About fifty meters away, sitting on the slab in front of the halls, Mohamed plagues. “I too would have preferred Mélenchon in the second round. But now, you have to vote Macron to save France. Macron and Le Pen are not comparable. If you abstain, you are not blocking Le Pen. You refrain from blocking him”, annoyed this employee in public works, the early sixties.

“Le Pen is the plague and cholera at the same time. You have to vote Macron. You close your eyes and you vote Macron.”

We walk a good kilometer, rue de Bologne, rue Sainte-Barbe, to the school Francois-Mitterrand Primary, transformed into a polling station (number 129) during the election. On the sidewalk, two men are discussing fuel, its price, “Worse and worse”, and elections, again. Both say they voted “Jean-Luc” in the first round. And in ten days? “Bah Macron”, said the smallest. The other does not answer. Silence. “Wait, are you kidding? Tyou’re not going to vote for Le Pen?” Quiet again. He says he doesn’t know. At last “not yet”but “maybe yes”.

In his office located near the rue de l’Université, in the city center, Emmanuel Négrier has had his head in the figures and the curves since Sunday evening, 8 p.m. The key to the second round? The participation rate, according to this doctor of political science, based in Montpellier. “Abstention will certainly be higher in the second round than in the first, especially in the polling stations of working-class neighborhoods. Not sure that the mobilization is at the same level.

So how, exactly, to limit abstention and encourage Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s voters to vote? Alenka Doulain, opposition municipal councilor in the Occitan city, reflects. “Convincing to say how much Marine Le Pen does not represent the working classes at all, that, we will continue to do during the in-between rounds”, begins by saying this spokesperson for the We Are movement, a collective close to Jean-Luc Melenchon. “For the rest, this it’s not up to us to go and distribute leaflets. It is the responsibility ofEmmanuel Macron, not ours. He added fuel to the fire during his five-year term, these are the consequences.

9 p.m., at Le Novelty bar. A “rebellious” activist sticks his head in the small group to say he must buy “a good box of Doliprane”. Medication “essentialdoes he think, to pursue the debate between the two rounds”, scheduled for next Wednesday at 9 p.m. For Montpellier LFI activists, this is a new opportunity to gather around a table. This time, Emmanuel Macron may have the right to stay a little longer on the screen of the establishment.