Laurent Wauquiez, here voting on Sunday morning in an office in Puy-en-Velay (Haute-Loire). – THIERRY ZOCCOLAN / AFP
- Laurent Wauquiez won 43.79% of the vote on Sunday evening, making him the huge favorite to once again take the lead in the region.
- Often attacked for his “patronage”, the Republican candidate inflicted a big defeat on the RN, and especially on LREM.
- 20 minutes is planned for next week in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, with a triangular LR-PS-RN configuration as a configuration.
There will a priori be no suspense on Sunday evening in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. At the end of a first round of regional marked by a historically low participation rate (32.59%, very far from the 48.91% of 2015), Laurent Wauquiez is more than in a position of strength. The strong tendency is towards a triangular one: the candidate LR finds himself facing the united left and the RN. The second round is announced with a triangular, namely the LR candidate facing the united left and the National Rally.
Laurent Wauquiez flies over the first lap
No poll had given the incumbent president above 40% of the voting intentions. This first round in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes can, however, be summed up in a tidal wave of Laurent Wauquiez, announced Sunday evening with 43.79% of the vote. “Tonight is a clear choice for a clear course, he proudly proclaimed, during a brief press conference completed before 8:20 pm. I want to thank from the bottom of my heart all those who have shown us such great confidence, which went far beyond all expectations. “More than ever, his opponents criticized him for his“ patronage ”throughout the evening. It would take quite a twist for the Republican candidate not to be reelected in an armchair next Sunday.
A slap for LREM, a disappointment for the RN
With Lyon as the historic capital of “Macronie” and the latest polls positioning him frequently as the third man of these regional in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Bruno Bonnell had to count. But the LREM candidate could not even inherit the 10% synonymous with maintaining the second round (9.87%). It is therefore a huge slap for the presidential majority, while Bruno Bonnell assured Sunday evening that he will not merge with any list. If Andréa Kotarac (National Rally) will be well in the second round, it will not be in the skin of the second political force as was expected. Behind
Fabienne Grébert (EELV), he is credited with 12.33% of the vote, which leaves him no hope of surprise.
“A union of the left” to revive the second round?
Perceived as inevitable even before the first round to block the second consecutive mandate announced by Laurent Wauquiez, the left-wing union was formalized at the end of the evening on Sunday by Najat Vallaud-Belkacem. “Tonight, I have the responsibility to bring together all the civic forces, of the left, environmentalists and humanists, all those who aspire to social and environmental justice, and who refuse to leave the region to the extreme right and to the right of the National rally “, had previously indicated Fabienne Grébert, the driving force of this” united left “with 14.45% collected. Najat Vallaud-Belkacem (11.40%) therefore recognized that she would be at his side, no doubt like the Communist Cécile Cukierman (5.56%). “What must be remembered is that social ecology has not said its last word in our country”, wants to believe the socialist candidate. But even the potential addition of the three forces of this left “political alternative” is far from reaching Laurent Wauquiez’s total.