In the fourth constituency of Sarthe, a duel will take place between Jean-Marie Le Pen’s daughter and LFI candidate Elise Leboucher for the second round of the legislative elections. Voters are divided on this high-speed local campaign.
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Marie-Caroline Le Pen, Marine Le Pen’s older sister and candidate in the legislative elections in the fourth constituency of Sarthe, refuses to speak to franceinfo: “That’s nice, but as long as you say we are far right, I won’t speak”she replies when someone hands her a microphone in Le Mans, in front of the premises of the community radio station Alpa.
In the first round, Marie-Caroline Le Pen won more than 39% of the vote. Facing her, the outgoing La France Insoumise MP, Elise Leboucher, won more than 25%: “Symbolically, it’s quite strong to send us the Le Pen dynasty in the department. She is a regional councillor in Ile-de-France. She is a parachuted in who is disconnected from the concerns of the inhabitants of Sarthe.”
“It’s mostly a debate where she plays on people’s fears with a lot of lies, adds the opponent. They make people believe that they are there for the people, that they have a program for the people… I have been in the Assembly for two years and they have never voted for anything in favor of improving people’s lives in terms of wage increases, price freezes…”
“It has been demonstrated by specialists that their program would benefit the richest 10% of French people, to the detriment of the poorest 30%.”
Elise Leboucher, LFIto franceinfo
In the western part of the city, the residents of the fourth district are divided. “No matter the extremesaid one. I find it worrying because we don’t really have a choice: we have to vote for the far right or the far left. And I admit that personally, neither of them suits me. I would like to have other solutions. Both scare me. Right now, I wouldn’t know which one to vote for, frankly.”
Others are more convinced. “We forget the French a little, so I am very happy that the RN comes out on top, a woman rejoices. I hope they really bring us a lot of satisfaction on retirement, purchasing power… And limit foreigners a little! There are a lot of them and that’s what I regret, is that we help them a lot. We put the French and security first, because unfortunately, when we go out, we are no longer safe…”
To block the National Rally, the candidate Ensemble, Sylvie Casenave-Péré has finally decided to retire. THE “parachute drop” of the candidate, daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, annoys some: “It annoys me even more than anything. I imagine she would be better off in Saint-Cloud and then she stays there. I think that the people who vote, they have to stop watching CNews or Hanouna. I think their brains are crushed. People are afraid, very afraid. They have been hiding it for years, but they are extremely racist. They think that because we are going to help a person of color less, they are going to have more money in their bowl. But it’s not true!“, tackles this passerby.
Finally, others prefer to wait to form their own opinion: “She might not be the first to be parachuted in. We can’t judge her negatively based on her name. I don’t have her CV, I don’t judge based on the name. It works like that everywhere, in all areas of society, so why not in politics? It doesn’t shock me unfortunately.”says a woman in front of a city store.