In Occitania, Emmanuel Macron in the lead but in sharp decline compared to 2017
If Occitania re-elected Emmanuel Macron (53.96%) ahead of Marine Le Pen (46.04%), the outgoing president fell on Sunday in the thirteen departments of the region compared to 2017, four even preferring the candidate of the extreme right. Emmanuel Macron largely won in Toulouse with 77.48%, against 22.52% in Marine Le Pen, in this city where Jean-Luc Mélenchon came out on top on April 10 with 36.93%, ahead of the head of the State (26.42%), the RN candidate placing herself far behind (9.54%).
With 72.17% against 27.83%, Emmanuel Macron also beat Marine Le Pen in Montpellier, another large city in the region and former capital of Languedoc-Roussillon, which merged with Midi-Pyrénées to become Occitanie.
But at the level of the departments, the outgoing president has retreated everywhere compared to his first election, in particular in the Lot, where he has gone from 72.18% in 2017 to 59.18% this time. Pyrénées-Orientales (56.32%), Aude (54.90%) and Gard (52.15%), as well as Tarn-et-Garonne (52.02%) voted for the candidate of National rally, already reinforced exit in the first round on the Mediterranean facade and in the countryside.
In Carmaux, mining town and birthplace of socialist Jean Jaurès, in the Tarn, impoverished by deindustrialization, Marine Le Pen also won, with 53.73%, against 46.27% for Emmanuel Macron. In Prades, stronghold of Prime Minister Jean Castex, in the Pyrénées-Orientales, it is credited with 51.33%, against 48.67% to Emmanuel Macron. In the first round, it was the candidate of La France insoumise who came out on top with 27.12%, ahead of the candidate of the RN (25.17%) and the outgoing president (21.09%).
On the other hand, Marine Le Pen was overtaken at 47.98%, against 52.02% for the candidate president of the Republic on the move (LRM), in Perpignan, a town led since 2020 by his spokesperson, Louis Aliot, and who wants to be the showcase of the RN.
The PS president of the region, Carole Delga, estimated on Sunday that with the victory of Emmanuel Macron “The Republic wins”but “the far right has never made so many votes in France”. “What has not been expressed at the ballot box risks turning into new social tensions”she warned in a statement, calling for “a determined and credible opposition to counter Emmanuel Macron’s program, hard on the weakest, complacent with the powerful”.
For his part, Louis Aliot projected himself towards the legislative elections of June 12 and 19, advocating on France 2 “a popular bloc” versus “an elite bloc” and saying dread “a third social round that will take place in the streets”.