Outgoing president of the Brittany region, Loïg Chesnais-Girard will be very much courted in the coming hours. – Alain ROBERT / SIPA
- In a ballot marked by a strong abstention, Loïg Chesnais Girard came first in the first round of the regional in Brittany.
- The big loser of the ballot is the National Rally which was announced at the head of the voting intentions and is found quite far from the outgoing socialist president.
- As soon as the results were known, Claire Desmares-Poirrier (EELV) and Thierry Burlot (EELV) appealed to Loïg Chesnais-Girard to merge.
An open and indecisive ballot was announced in Brittany. The first round of regional was especially marked on Sunday by a historic abstention rate with two thirds of Breton voters who shunned the ballot box. This first round did not lead to a great political upheaval either with the outgoing socialist president Loïg Chesnais-Girard who arrives comfortably enough in the lead. As soon as the results were announced, Thierry Burlot, candidate supported by LREM, and the ecologist Claire Desmares-Poirrier made calls to him to merge.
The premium President going out
He did not crush the match as Jean-Yves Le Drian had done in 2015 (more than 35% of the vote). But Loïg Chesnais-Girard all the same succeeded in his bet by arriving fairly well ahead of the first round on Sunday with 20.95% of the vote. “The Bretons and the Bretons have made a clear choice”, welcomed the elected socialist. Behind him, however, the results are very tight for second place. Neck to neck until late in the evening, Isabelle Le Callennec (Les Républicains), Thierry Burlot, candidate supported by the LREM, and the environmental candidate Claire Desmares-Poirrier stand in a pocket handkerchief with respectively 16.27% , 15.53% and 14.84% of the votes.
The Rnational assembly drink the cup
It’s the soup to the grimace on the side of the National Rally. A poll carried out two weeks ago thus placed Marine Le Pen’s party at the top of voting intentions in the region. His head of the list Gilles Pennelle was also very confident this week, indicating that he would arrive “largely in the lead” on Sunday night. It was not, the RN candidate arriving very far from Loïg Chesnais-Girard with 14.27% of the votes. “It’s the ridiculous participation that penalizes us,” he said. The young people and the popular categories who make up our electorate did not come ”.
A merger in the second round but with whom?
Loïg Chesnais-Girard’s cell phone should heat up over the next few hours. As soon as the results were known, calls for mergers for the second round multiplied. The ecologist Claire Desmares-Poirrier thus called for the gathering of “all those who place ecology and the values of the left at the heart of their concerns”. Thierry Burlot considers himself capable of “creating a large majority”, even announcing “a big surprise” next Sunday.
Between these two camps, the outgoing president Loïg Chesnais-Girard refused to choose Sunday evening. “It would have been great if they had come with me from the start,” he said, waiting for the final results before making a decision. In an interview with Ouest-France last week, Jean-Yves Le Drian had urged his successor to marry Thierry Burlot, but especially not with the Greens.
Far from these negotiations, which will end Tuesday at the end of the day with the filing of the lists, Isabelle Le Callennec also believes in her chances for the second round. “We can all hold on and go to the second round under our own colors,” she said. The regional ballot is such that we still have all our chances ”.