In 2024, all of Gard has been conquered by the National Rally. All ? No ! A Cévennes village is still resisting the breakthrough of the extreme right. The 5,100 inhabitants of Grand-Combe, led for 30 years by Patrick Malavieille (PCF) who was on Léon Deffontaines’ list for these European elections, placed the communist list in the lead. In reality, in 20 other municipalities Bardella came second (12 for the PS-Place publique, 1 for the Greens, 6 for the FI and 1 for Renaissance), but none of them represents more than 1,000 inhabitants…
“ I also record the good results for the list of Manon Aubry and Raphaël Glucksmann and when we accumulate left-wing votes in the commune it gives great hope for the future, even if Grand-Combe is not France », specifies Patrick Malavieille.
For the rest, the far right is rounding up everything, from dozens of Cévennes communes to the Gard Rhône, including Nîmes, Alès and the Pays de Beaucaire. It reaches 30% in Nîmes (36% if we add Reconquête) and 37% in Alès (43% with Reconquête). The election of four RN deputies in 2022 out of six possible had already sounded like a bolt from the blue. The 40.42% of the Bardella list department-wide is a new one. The alert threshold is therefore largely exceeded.
Saving Soldier Sala
Faced with this threat, the priority for progressives will obviously be to save the 5th constituency, that of Michel Sala (LFI), the only outgoing left-wing Gard MP. In 2022, thanks to a good local presence, the former trade unionist who became mayor of Saint-Félix-de-Pallières came well ahead in the first round (33.48% against 23.5% for the RN). But in the second round, he had to face the “neither nor nor” of the Macronist candidate. In the end, he won by a landslide (53%, 2,700 votes difference).
What will happen on June 30? No one can predict it today. In the meantime, the Insoumis, who has just celebrated his 70th birthday, is going back into battle. The day after the dissolution, he announced that he was a candidate for succession and planned to really launch his campaign on Saturday June 15 in Anduze (6:30 p.m.) with a public meeting. The campaign, which is intended to be lightning-fast, will be complicated in the largest constituency of Gard, which extends from Mont-Aigoual via Quissac, Alès Ouest, to Bessèges…
In the other constituencies, the battle will be even tougher, especially since the four outgoing RN deputies are all candidates for re-election. On the 1time constituency, which includes part of Nîmes and Beaucaire, the Insoumis Charles Ménard came very close to qualifying for the second round in 2022. The current boss of the PS, Pierre Jaumain, could also see himself going into the campaign in the Place de l’Insoumis. But the anchoring of the RN in this territory today seems even more favorable to the outgoing deputy Yoann Gillet. Just as is the case in the Gard Camargue (2e circo) for Nicolas Meizonnet and in the Rhone Gard (3e) for Pascale Bordes (despite her invisibility on the ground).
For surprises, you will surely have to look towards the 4e and the 6e. Arnaud Bord (PS) qualified for the second round in 2022 in the constituency which extends from Alès to Pont-Saint-Esprit. In Nîmes and Uzès, on the 6e, the outgoing Philippe Berta (Modem) is not running for re-election. Enough to leave an opening for the ecologist Nicolas Cadène who came very close in 2022?
