in Provins, voters hesitate between “rejection” or “vote out of spite”

In Provins (Seine-et-Marne), southeast of Paris, voters placed Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the lead in the first round of the presidential election. The candidate of La France insoumise obtained 23.44%, just ahead of Marine Le Pen and her 23.31%. They are ahead of Emmanuel Macron by a small point. In this city of 11,600 inhabitants, historically on the right, Valérie Pécresse and Eric Zemmour also scored well above the national level. Disappointed voters to whom franceinfo gave the floor two days before the second round.

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For these voters whom we met, with a rather unpredictable choice for the second round, the question is not to know which ideas they adhere to but rather who they hate the most. Martine, 56, had slipped a Jean-Luc Mélenchon bulletin on April 10: “I intend to vote blank because neither of them interest me.” Could she vote for Marine Le Pen? “No, I do not think soshe answers. It’s a little scary though.”

Thierry, 45, does not hesitate. It’s decided, he will vote for the candidate of the National Rally, despite Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s voting instructions: “He said ‘Above all, don’t vote for Le Pen’. But hey, afterwards, we’re free to vote for whoever we want and it will be Le Pen because it won’t be Macron.”

“Everyone is afraid. There are plenty of people who were also afraid of Mitterrand and as a result, it went well.”

Thierry, who will vote for Marine Le Pen

at franceinfo

When we ask this inhabitant of Provins if, in his opinion, the ideas of Marine Le Pen’s program on pensions or purchasing power are interesting, he answers quite clearly: “No, no, it’s Macron’s rejection.”

Another voter of La France insoumise who prefers to remain anonymous confides to us: “I’m not going to vote for anyone who pisses me off.” SWe heard Emmanuel Macron. The president-candidate is not the only one to arouse strong rejection. Jacques will vote for La République en Marche and especially against the RN candidate: “I’m going to vote out of spite, out of caution, because I still prefer Macron to Marine. There is a story, a family story, there are genes. It’s true that she can deceive. She can give confidence . But hey, I’m still suspicious.”

This distrust is also felt among the voters of Valérie Pécresse and there are many of them in Provins. The candidate Les Républicains obtained more than 11% of the vote in this city held by an LR mayor and led by Christian Jacob from 2006 to 2017. A right that leans more for Emmanuel Macron. This is the case of John: “There is no hesitation for a second. I think that Marine Le Pen, we discovered at the end of the debate what she really was: she is still National Front. It’s not my side.” QWhen it is pointed out to Jean that Marine Le Pen’s party is now called the National Rally, he insists: “No, it’s the National Front and it’s the spirit of his father. These are people who are racist.”

Marine Le Pen has on the contrary changed a lot, believes Chantal who voted for Eric Zemmour in the first round: “Compared to what she was before, it has nothing to do with her father anymore. I feel her to be more human than before, so why not? Because we really want that to change.” Chantal and her husband both gave their voice to the Reconquest candidate! April 10. But the couple is not on the same wavelength for the choice of April 24 and it is not a question of program. Personality, attitude matters a lot to them.

Chantal criticizes Emmanuel Macron for his arrogance: “He’s right about everything. We French people are just idiots now, everything is forbidden. He says he managed the Covid crisis well. He’s very proud of himself, but I don’t think so. Me, I find that everything that happened, people, they quickly forgot“. “I find him smarter than her”, advance her husband. But Chantal, contradicts it right away: “I find that he is the mafia, what. He comes out of the banks, Rothschilds, all that, they are the ones who lead us.”

I really want to vote Le Pen, but a little with fear in my stomach, wondering what will happen to us?

And then, in Provins, there are all those who did not vote or who voted for the “smaller candidates”. Nicolas, is one of the 94 people who voted for Jean Lassalle in the commune and he sums up quite well what the abstainers, like him, disgusted with politics, also said: “Politicians don’t tell me much. Marine Le Pen is still the far right. We must not forget about her background, about her father, about what she represents. Well, Macron is someone who has completely crushed French politics by crushing the right, crushing the left. Not easy.