We talk about the price of strawberries, we queue at the vending machine and we worry about the prospects of rain while scanning the sky. This Friday, June 14 at the Châtelaillon-Plage market, everything is absolutely normal. However, a small event had marked the election evening of the previous Sunday. Among Europeans, the city placed the National Rally in the lead (24.47%), a first in the coastal city renowned for a certain sweetness of life. In the same genre, Fouras (25.63%), Saint-Martin-de-Ré (28.62%) and La Flotte (26.89%) experienced a similar fate.
“Today, retirees are getting into it,” analyzes Dominique, who came to do his shopping from Thairé. The sixty-year-old cannot explain this “strong trend among seniors, while the average retiree has nothing to complain about. Maybe it’s curiosity, but it might not succeed.” On the market, few people want to discuss the subject – “I don’t have the heart to talk about it,” a passerby whispers – and discussions often revolve around something else. “This morning like yesterday (Thursday, Editor’s note), where there were also a lot of people, it doesn’t talk much about politics,” confirms a trader on his stand.
“Big scare”
Same discretion around the rise of the far-right party in Fouras, where mayor Daniel Coirier is tight-lipped on the issue: “Everyone is free to vote for whoever they want, I am waiting for the legislative elections to draw conclusions. »
Before, here, we didn’t know what a burglary, violence, incivility was. Today, I no longer dare to go out in the evening
However, one word came back into the mouths of onlookers this Friday in Châtelaillon: “incomprehension”. “I understand even less in a city with elderly people who have already experienced the horrors of war and the extreme right,” says Nancy, 54. She links the good RN scores to the problem of immigration, “but here…”.
From Châtelaillon, Christine offers an explanation: “Before, here, we didn’t know what a burglary, violence, incivility was. Today, I no longer dare to go out in the evening. » If the septuagenarian puts forward insecurity as the reason for the rise of the RN in her city, she has no confidence in the RN’s solutions to resolve this. The results of the Europeans gave him a “big scare” and the National Rally did not have his voice.
“Many young people voted”
Marine Le Pen’s party may have benefited, on the other hand, from those of the youngest. “I held an office on Sunday,” says deputy mayor David Labiche. Many young people came to vote. And we often hear it: they are afraid of the future, worried about questions of education, work, purchasing power…” For the one who is also president of the Republicans in the department, the head of this vote is all there: Emmanuel Macron. “When we are on the ground, we hear many people say that they want to beat the president. »
By still voting in numbers for the RN in the upcoming legislative elections? In any case, there is still room for good scores in Châtelaillon-Plage, Fouras, Saint-Martin-de-Ré and La Flotte. In the four cities, the number of RN ballots was much greater during the second round of the 2022 presidential election than during these European elections (1).
(1) Châtelaillon-Plage, 1,304 against 865; Fouras, 959 to 613; Saint-Martin, 394 against 217; The Fleet, 712 against 430.
