In the second round of legislative elections in Tourcoing, left-wing voters face the dilemma of blocking the RN

Leslie Mortreux is still campaigning a bit. Qualified in third position in the 10th constituency of the North, the candidate of the New Popular Front has chosen to withdraw from the second round to block the extreme right. However, she came to pass a head, Wednesday July 3, in Tourcoing, in the district of La Bourgogne, which put her in the lead in the first round. While thanking her voters, she is still ruminating : did she do the right thing by giving Gérald Darmanin a free hand?

“If it had been someone else, I wouldn’t have hesitated for a second, but Darmanin is not a Macronist like the others.“grumbles the ex-candidate, who concedes that this withdrawal was a “question of dignity”.

“There are people I could no longer look in the eye if the RN passes and we do not play with people’s lives.”

Leslie Morteux, candidate of the New Popular Front in the 10th constituency of the North

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In Gérald Darmanin’s stronghold, Leslie Mortreux, invested by La France Insoumise, obtained 24.82% of the votes, behind the Minister of the Interior (36.03%), who was only 837 votes ahead of the National Rally candidate, Bastien Verbrugghe (34.31%).

In this territory bordering Belgium, which covers part of Tourcoing where Gérald Darmanin was mayor Between 2014 and 2017 before entering the government, the question of blocking the far right immediately arose for the voters of the New Popular Front. And the dilemma too, both the personality and the political line of the Minister of the Interior tense on the left. “Between Darmanin and the RN, it almost makes you want to vote blank”says ironically Fatima, met in the La Bourgogne district.

“When I think of him, I think of his sentence about halal shelves [en 2020, il s’était dit choqué par les rayons de cuisine communautaire]. We don’t have more important problems in France, such as health, education, the cost of living. ?” asks the 25-year-old student. Like other voters interviewed by franceinfo, she considers that Gérald Darmanin and the presidential camp participated in the rise of the extreme right.

“And the RN is a policy that aims to set people against each other, to play on fears”she adds, feeling stigmatized because of her Muslim religion. She has voted left since she came of age and has already blocked the far right twice : in 2017 and in 2022, after voting for Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the first round.

Cécile also voted for Emmanuel Macron in the second round of the presidential election two years ago. The young woman is hesitant to vote blank. “Either way, he’ll pass. I think I’ll decide on Sunday in the voting booth.”she testifies.

“It costs me to vote for Darmanin.”

Cécile, resident of Tourcoing

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Cecile faces a “huge dilemma” : she does not want an RN MP in her constituency – “They have a clear policy and their history speaks for itself, it is a party that was created by Nazis” – but feels a deep enmity for the Minister of the Interior. “I have trouble with the character, what he represents, his function”explains Cécile, shocked by the accusations of rape against him, even though he was definitively exonerated by the courts.

“LFI all the way”Cécile still does the “difference” between the policy of Emmanuel Macron, which Gérald Darmanin has been defending since 2017, and the National Rally. “But the further away he is from me, the better I feel.”she smiles on the sidelines of the Olympic flame passing ceremony in Tourcoing. If he witnessed the departure of the flame As Minister of the Interior and not as a candidate, according to his entourage, the tenant of Beauvau still took advantage of the event to enjoy a crowd bath, take selfies and tell some people not to forget to go and vote on Sunday.

Very discreet since the first round, the former mayor of Tourcoing recalled on X that “He would never ally himself with the extreme left”. “The man on the right”as he calls himself, knows that he needs the votes of left-wing voters to win on Sunday. “We need these voices as we need everyone’s voices,” corrects his substitute, Vincent Ledoux, who explains that “When you’re not bland, not mineral water, you’re more divisive” about the one he calls “social candidate”.

Elsa and Vivien run a restaurant in the center from Tourcoing. And they find a quality in the one they have already met at merchants’ meetings. “He is a good speaker”they admit. Other than that, not much. : “But if Darmanin does good things, we wouldn’t have any problem saying so”assures Vivien, who votes in the neighboring constituency. “If the idea is to block the RN, we’ll do it, period. And if we have to do it again, we’ll do it. It’s not harder, but more tiring.”Elsa explains. “And then the question is how to build society together ?” asks her partner, who is worried about Sunday’s results.

“The RN is the opposite of our values, of the motto liberty, equality, fraternity.”

Vivien, restaurateur in Tourcoing

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The couple displayed a quote from Albert Camus at the entrance to their restaurant : “When a democracy is sick, fascism always comes to its bedside, but it is never to ask for news.”