Even if some uncertainties must still be resolved, the right will confirm its local base on Thursday. After elections marked by a historic abstention, the presidents of the departmental councils will indeed be appointed.
The right, which had a very large majority of 70 departments against 33 for the left (with the Overseas) since the 2015 elections, could win up to three more if some of its candidates are elected presidents during the meetings new departmental councils.
The greatest uncertainty concerns Seine-Maritime, a department chaired by Bertrand Bellanger, close to Edouard Philippe, who is likely to switch back to the left. It all depends on the choice of an elected centrist, Dominique Métot, ex DVG reelected on Sunday and who claims his independence, even if he voted the budgets of the last term.
Ardèche turns right
Another department where the right and the left had not managed to decide on Sunday during the second round with six cantons each: Vaucluse which should however remain to the right. The pair elected in the canton of Bollène, including the mayor of the city, a former socialist, has indeed announced that he will vote for the LR candidate, Dominique Santoni.
The Ardèche, a bastion of the left for 23 years, will switch to the right. Olivier Amrane should become the new president of the department in the hands of the left since 1998, thanks to the support of an independent pair, breaking with the outgoing majority, who announced Monday that he would support him.
The right also created a surprise on Sunday by winning a historic victory in Puy-de-Dôme, a bastion of the left which has only known two alternations to the right since 1945: between 1973 and 1976 and then between 1992 and 1998. It also delighted the departments of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and Finistère, both on the left for 23 years and conquered Val-de-Marne, the last stronghold of the Communist Party, which he had led since 1976, after the surprise loss of the Allier in 2015. For its part, the left recovered the Charente and Côtes-d’Armor which had passed to the right in 2015.