One was elected from a half-rural, half-industrial land: the bocage vendeenthe other in a highly urbanized area: the hypercentre of Nantes. Martine Leguille-Balloy and Valerie Oppelt have in common to have discovered at the same time the political life and the benches of the national assembly, five years ago in the wake of the first election of Emmanuel Macron. But five years later, they are among those elected from the outgoing majority who were sanctioned by voters, disappointed with the first five-year term of the head of state.
One, Valérie Oppelt, was beaten by a Nupes candidate, the rebellious Andy Kerbrat, on a constituency that she had won from the left in 2017. The other, Martine Leguille-Balloy, was eliminated in the second round by a figure from the Vendée right: the mayor of Les Herbiers and former deputy for this territory, Véronique Besse who, five years earlier, had given up seeking a new mandate.
Both victims of what has been called the “rebalancing” of the national assembly to the detriment of the Macronist majority. We find them a few weeks later, this Tuesday, July 26, and they give us their views on this painful moment for them.
No surprises with the results
From the outset Valérie Oppelt agrees to confide. It’s a little less true for Matine Leguille-Balloy, who hesitates a bit, but ends up being convinced: “It will allow me to thank all those who supported me, economically, politically and all the activists who were by my side.”
the result on the evening of June 19 ? It was not no surprise, “it was even a foregone conclusion” believes the former elected Vendée competed by a figure very rooted in local political life. Martine Leguille-Balloy regrets, however, not having been able to carry out a real campaign, to hold debates, to exchange. For her part Valérie Oppelt recognizes that the national climate did not help her, she who had been elected five years ago on a socialist land since 1997. “I told Emmanuel Macron, to whom I sent a message, we need to talk more to youth, to young people. Otherwise they take refuge in abstention or in voting for the far left, on this point we did not succeed” explains the former Nantes deputy who also castigates a local campaign “very violent” led by his adversary La France insoumise.
No bitterness
But both affirm it: they feel no bitterness. “I still have a lot of contact with those who accompanied me, I remain close to the government, to my former colleagues, I am also a macronist, perhaps even more than in 2016, when I embarked on this adventure of walkers, and I continue to follow everything that happens” confides the Vendée Martine Leguille-Balloy. More detached from the immediate news, Valérie Oppelt claims to have taken up her mission as a deputy “like a form of CDD for 5 years, I knew it could go on or stop.”
The fear of emptiness ?
Have the two women turned the page on politics? “Nope !” immediately affirms Valérie Oppelt who remains elected in opposition to the municipal council and the metropolitan council of Nantes. “I owe it to my voters, to the Nantes women and men who trusted me” she continues. Were they afraid of heights? the fear of the telephone that no longer rings? of the agenda that no longer fills up? “No way” says the Vendée “because my loved ones, my supporters are always there.”
When the Nantes woman even admits to savoring a little “a more normal life” without the incessant round trips to Paris and the night sessions in the hemicycle. “A deputy sacrifices his whole life, his friends, his relatives, it’s normal, it’s the function that wants that, I am fully committed”, she confides.
A new legislative candidacy?
What’s next? Valerie Oppelt remember that she was entrepreneur in the past in the industryshe says she wants to use her experience to launch “in an activity at the service of people, at the service of people with disabilities”although for now “nothing has been finalized yet, it’s still very unclear.”
After the campaign Martine Leguille-Balloy took a few days to take care of his sick mother, then to breathe a little. A lawyer by profession, she is preparing a professional retraining on which she prefers to remain discreet: “Until it’s signed, you know how it is…”
But when asked if she could go back to politics? “Maybe yes” replies the Vendée after a silence of a few seconds which resonates like a hesitation. “I’ve known people I have respect for and have enjoyed working with, I’m a lawyer by training, I like fights, I like winning them, I like being useful, so who knows? Maybe I’ll do politics again, but I don’t know yet under what circumstances” she concluded before adding a last word in the form of a tackle: “my opponent claimed during the campaign that she would be useful to the inhabitants of the constituency, but she begins with a trip to Lebanon when the law on purchasing power is being discussed in the assembly, that makes me smile, I don’t I haven’t let go of the political thing, I’m watching what’s going on”.