“He is calm, very combative”. Even before the ecologist Jean-Laurent Félizia finally withdraws his list of union of the left, the team of Renaud Muselier (LR) thus describes the state of mind of the candidate. Second behind RN Thierry Mariani in the first round of regional Paca, with 31.9% of the vote, the outgoing president of the region has left for the campaign, just like his opponent. This Tuesday, he must hold a meeting in Toulon in the evening. The same morning, he will be in Avignon to meet Olivier Py, the director of the festival, and distribute anti-Covid tests to the technicians of the show. The opportunity for him to take on the role of manager of the health crisis.
“It is a campaign which gave the first to the outgoing”, comments the political scientist Virginie Martin for whom the election in Paca is above all another lesson: “The strategy of turning its back on the RN and opening up to The Republic in walk pays off, he proved that the Ciotti, the Falco were wrong. It is basically the posture of Xavier Bertrand. While he was alone against all, Muselier proved he was the boss of the Republicans in Paca. “
Re-mobilize non-voters
“The calculation was good”, also believes Christèle Lagier, lecturer in political science at the University of Avignon. “With this first round, Muselier has a form of credibility. The Republican right has resisted well, it may be able to defeat the RN, with the alliance with center-right environmentalists and the deferral of votes from voters on the left. There is an issue of remobilizing the electorate. “
“The RN has two types of reserves of votes, those of Debout France and a burst of participation, the abstention having been rather to the detriment of the RN,” says Virginia Martin for her part. And if the triangular obscures the picture, the prospect of a duel clarifies it.
“We must convince the abstainers, we can not afford to be the only region of France to move to the extreme right, launches François de Canson, head of the Renaud Museilier list in the Var. We have seen the devastation in Toulon, it took two terms to revive the city ”. Toulon which, decidedly, is the land where the two enemy brothers of the regional right will face each other more than ever.