Martine Froger obtained 60% of the vote on Sunday, against 40% for her rival during the second round of these partial legislative elections.
This is a setback for the Nupes. There socialist dissident Martine Froger, supported by the PS president of the Occitanie region, Carole Delga, and the number 2 of the party, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, beat the outgoing deputy Bénédicte Taurine, candidate of La France insoumise (LFI) officially supported by the Left Union, Sunday April 2, during the partial legislative election in the 1st district of Ariège.
Martine Froger obtained 60.19% of the vote against 39.81% for her rival. In the first round, Bénédicte Taurine came first with 31.18% of the vote while Martine Froger took second place with 26.42% of the vote. According to the prefecture, the participation rate reached 37.13%. A level practically equal to that of last week, 38.05%.
The first constituency of Ariège had become on the occasion of this election a stake in the war of the left between the first secretary of the PS Olivier Faure, who supported the insubordinate under the Nupes agreement, and the number 2 Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, defender of the dissident. According to information from France Télévisions, she asked on Friday if she could sit with the Socialists, but has not yet had an answer.
An election that fractures the left
“These results say that there is a possible alternative for our country with a social, ecological, secular and European leftreacts the boss of the Occitanie region, Carole Delga, while the defeated candidate for the presidency of the PS, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, challenged the rebellious leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon on Twitter. “You’ll have to get used to it: in Ariège as elsewhere, there are socialist women and men, who proudly carry their values, who want the left to win and who will never be… submitted to you”, he wrote.
On the side of LFI, the deputy of Bouches-du-Rhône and coordinator of the party, Manuel Bompard, deplored on Twitter that “the opportunistic alliance of gravediggers from the left, the macronists, the right and the far right will have made it possible to oust a people’s deputy from the National Assembly”, and gave his “brotherly support” to Bénédicte Taurine.
And the war of the lefts even continued with interposed tweets. When the results were announced, PS MP Valérie Rabault split a message of congratulations on the blue bird network. “I would like Martine to join the socialist group in the National Assembly [qui siège avec la Nupes NDLR] (…) she has her place there”, she wrote. Dry response online from one of his rebellious colleagues, MP Nadège Abomangoli: “congratulations on your congratulations to a new deputy adored by the right, the RN and the macronie who is increasing tenfold in social and political violence. Indeed it is time to think about a phase 2 of the Nupes”.
On the government side, we are delighted with this victory of Martine Froger. “If there is of course a place on the political spectrum for a responsible left, this election shows above all that excess and radicalism do not pay”, tweeted the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt. His counterpart in Transport, Clément Beaune, said to himself, “happy and relieved”. “Let’s hope that this result shows the responsible left that its future is not written with LFI within Nupes”, he added.