in Yvelines, the big gap of Aurélien Rousseau, former Macronist minister who moved to the left to “block the RN”

Chosen by Place publique in the 7th constituency of this department, the former chief of staff of Elisabeth Borne is challenging the former Minister of the City and outgoing MP, Nadia Hay, who wears the colors of the presidential majority.

“And you, what party do you come from?” Arriving for a morning haul at the Verneuil-sur-Seine station in Yvelines, Wednesday June 19, Aurélien Rousseau inquires about the activists around him. Socialists, ecologists and communists are united around the banner of the New Popular Front to help Emmanuel Macron’s former Minister of Health to “block the National Rally”according to the mobilizing slogan.

The rebels are expected a little later on the market of this town of 15,000 inhabitants. “We are not going to hide that we have differences”quickly admits the former chief of staff of Elisabeth Borne, who left the government in December 2023 over a disagreement after the vote on the immigration law. “But there is something that scares me and which seems possible, it is a majority for the RN. I am fighting against that first.”

In the 7th constituency of Yvelines, the enarque, who headed the Ile-de-France regional health agency during the Covid-19 pandemic, finds himself facing another former minister of Emmanuel Macron, Nadia Hai , in charge of the City when Jean Castex was at Matignon. In 2022, this Macronist won with 56% of the votes against a socialist candidate from Nupes. Two years later, in the European elections, the National Rally came first with 23.5% of the votes. For the legislative elections, the far-right party has chosen as its candidate the media chef Babette de Rozières, who is running under the LR-RN banner.

However, on the left, we took out the calculator. In this land of election of former Prime Minister Michel Rocard, the total number of votes obtained by the four parties of the New Popular Front amounts to 37%. “The 7th district is winnable, so it wasn’t too surprising to me that they chose someone better known”confides socialist Michèle Christophoul, who defended the Nupes camp in 2022.

The parachute drop of this former minister, chosen by Place publique, the party of Raphaël Glucksmann, has been decided “very quickly” during the day of Friday June 14. On Saturday evening, he met his campaign manager, an elected official from Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, and on Sunday, he began his campaign in the markets. “With the dissolution, Emmanuel Macron made an error in his political calculation, by betting on the fact that the left would not be able to unite”he analyzes.

“We cannot have a single choice between the RN and Renaissance, it is not democratic. So it is a rally against the National Rally, but also against the trap set for the left.”

Aurélien Rousseau, candidate of the New Popular Front

at fraceinfo

His arrival left some disappointed among the candidates for an investiture, and disconcerted some left-wing activists. “The rebels play the game well, we work together and things go well”however assures Michèle Christophoul. “I was a little surprised, but hey, it’s the programs that count”admits Maritza, a communist activist, brandishing the sheet containing the ten commitments of the New Popular Front. “I’m a left-wing guy, I left office overnight over a political disagreement and it’s not easy to leave a government“, affirms Aurélien Rousseau. However, at the same time he warns his new allies: “There are positions taken by LFI candidates that are intolerable. There are things, like anti-Semitism, that we don’t play with, it’s rubbish. And that’s unbearable too.”

This native of Gard, former history and geography teacher, father of three children, does not live in the district and discovers this quiet area of ​​the Parisian suburbs day after day. “I’m not from here, as my accent shows, but I am anchored thanks to all the activists who surround me and I have had the right to an activist masterclass since Sunday”he assures while drinking a large cream in the backyard of a PMU. “And the subjects in this constituency are national: education, housing, pollution, the feeling of being downgraded…”

Among the subjects covered by the common program of the left alliance, there is also the repeal of three reforms by Emmanuel Macron,“those on immigration, unemployment insurance and pensions”. Between the market stalls, Aurélien Rousseau is also questioned on this last point. “I hope that you will explain to your new allies that we must carry out this pension reform, that we must maintain a spirit of responsibility in view of France’s state of debt”says an activist from the presidential majority. “Neither the PS, nor the Greens, nor Glucksmann intend to retire at 60 for everyone. But people must be able to retire at 60, when they started working early or that they had difficult jobs”justifies the candidate, who was a communist activist in his youth.

“My main subject is to save the pay-as-you-go pension system. I think we will have debates on the modalities of a new reform.”

Aurélien Rousseau

at franceinfo

Like Emmanuel Macron during an interview on June 14, Aurélien Rousseau’s former “friends” denounce “inconsistency” of the candidate. “He denied his origins, his battles fought alongside Emmanuel Macron. He was the author of the pension reform”denounces Nadia Hai, distributing leaflets at the RER exit in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. “There is a contradiction with what he carried and with part of his values”she presses.

“It feels like I was Professor Nimbus with test tubes to concoct pension reform. I was [alors] chief of staff to the Prime Minister, but I was not minister, I was in a council position”, defends the candidate. He rocks “fought a lot” to try to find an agreement with the unions. Accused of having “turned his jacket inside out”, the candidate counterattacks: “I was minister to the President of the Republic and I left when I experienced the change in political orientation. Emmanuel Macron, I do not believe that he was elected on the immigration law, on the fact of use the word ‘immigrationist’ like he did yesterday [mardi]but he was elected to block the RN.”

On the Verneuil-sur-Seine market, candidate Rousseau must in turn respond to the anger of farmers, to a teacher from a Montessori school or even to concerns about tax increases. “It feels good to move from the theory of files to the reality on the ground”assures the former minister. “I am worried about taxation, in the end it is the middle classes who will pay, because we will have to settle the debt”says a resident. “We have a policy that has helped the richest in recent years, so I think we can also restore a little tax justice”, replies Aurélien Rousseau. And when he runs out of arguments, he goes back to basics: “The most important thing is not to wake up on July 8 with a hangover and the RN in power.”