Anne Brugnera, presidential deputy (we no longer dare to write “presidential majority”) of the 4th constituency, is not in a very favorable situation.
Between 2019 and 2024, the last two European elections, 4,300 votes in favor of his camp flew away. On June 9, only 18% of voters voted for Valérie Hayer’s list of the presidential majority. Small consolation: here Hayer beat Glucksmann’s list by 430 votes, and Bardella’s by 2,300.
On paper, the re-election of the outgoing MP is still possible. If the 7% of voters who voted for Reconquest! Europeans persist in voting in the legislative elections for Amande Torrent, neither this local representative of Eric Zemmour’s party nor Yannick Chaumont, the RN candidate, will obtain a ticket for the second round.
In this case, Anne Brugnera will find the candidate of the New Popular Front (NFP), Sandrine Runel, who will have been qualified a long time ago, with the 41% that the lefts in four lists totaled in the European elections. Under these conditions, even with a considerable delay in votes, Anne Brugnera could bring together all the voters opposed to the NFP alliance which associates the PS Sandrine Runel with the more left-wing France Insoumise and win at the last minute.
Romain Billard is under guard
A rather improbable scenario and which should not please LR Romain Billard who intends to capitalize on the 12% of Lyonnais who voted for François-Xavier Bellamy, 15 days ago, in the circo (which brings together the 6th, the north of the 3rd and a small piece of Mermoz in the 8th). His campaign leaflet recalls the support of an impressive number of former mayors of the 6th arrondissement.
On the market, 2 meters from him, Pascal Blache, the current mayor, grumbles about the second round of the election scheduled for July 7: “People are on vacation, we won’t be able to hold the polling stations”. Dominique Nachury, former LR deputy for the constituency, goes out of her way to present Romain Billard, her former colleague in the Assembly, to the customers. His energy is limitless but once hands are shaken and introductions made, aside, a slight doubt arises: “We’re not in Olympic shape you know?”. If she does not fear the dissidence ‘from above’ of Eric Ciotti, she is worried about the RN vote of voters who until now have voted on the right.
Romain Billard is positive: “I represent the balance between the RN and Renaissance. The Fifth Republic was built on a left/right divide, and we are returning to this divide. Up to and including the European elections, the right-wing Macronists remained, but it’s over: they will come back to us like those on the left came back to Glucksmann”. You can’t be less parachuted than Romain Billard, born on the Place du Château in Montchat (3rd arrondissement), went to the Condorcet school, the Molière college and the Herriot high school – all in the 4th district. But can it defy the numbers?
Even if Romain Billard is right, and the left/right divide is making a reappearance, it would be ironic if the 4th constituency of Lyon closes its Macronist parenthesis with the election of a socialist like Sandrine Runel. Opened in 2017, the Macronist parenthesis was only possible thanks to the surprising rise in the share price of former Lyon socialists who did not dare to dream of it. This is how Anne Brugnera won the fourth for LREM in 2017 after failing in 2012 in the colors of the PS. Two years after having succeeded in preventing the green Benjamin Badouard from stealing it from her (in 2022), she leaves for the campaign without hesitation.
Anne Brugnera in the countryside
Here she is on the markets, that of Mongolfier in the heart of the 6th arrondissement. Going to markets yes, but not door to door: “People don’t like being bothered as a candidate. But I sometimes do it as an MP, and people like to have their MP on their doormat”. Exactly: what have people been telling him about government policies for 7 years? “Of course there are criticisms: that of having pursued a policy that is too right-wing, but not to me personally, people know where I come from”.
Purple jacket and unfailing smile Anne Brugnera serves her hands. Early the next day, there she was at the Monplaisir market, in the 3rd arrondissement, on the odd sidewalk of the terrible Cours Albert Thomas, because on the other side it was another stronghold.
A very old lady protests to her: “The first thing I want to tell you is how is it that there are young people who enter my residence supposedly with the authorization of the prefecture? Last time I saw two. I asked them what they were doing there…”
Anne Brugnera politely worries about the result of this request, but her interlocutor moves on to her second subject of concern: the suction cup cars. Here we go again. The lady’s husband joins the group and then – out of nowhere – Stéphanie Léger in a bright orange coat joins the discussion.
Not surprised or hostile, Anne Brugnera welcomes her competitor with a friendly gesture. Stéphanie Léger – school assistant for the City of Lyon – is the opposition to Brugnera – isn’t she there to tow for Sandrine Runel? Stéphanie Léger sheds light on her appearance: she is the neighbor of the couple in question. The discussion is resolved in two minutes: Stéphanie Léger leaves.
Things don’t always go so smoothly when an MP meets unhappy citizens. A lady refuses the leaflet that Anne Brugnera hands her: “I do not vote even though I have lived in France for 30 years as a Belgian, I applied for nationality 2 years ago, but it is not moving forward”. Anne Brugnera regrets: “But why didn’t you ask me?”. The lady is bitter. She whistles: “But nationality is not a free pass. I shouldn’t have to ask you”she leaves without listening to the proposals of the outgoing MP.
Saturday morning is decidedly rainy on the Albert Thomas course. But rain doesn’t ruin life when you’re in politics.
Sandrine Runel: first campaign
Besides, Stéphanie Léger did not let herself be caught a second time. The day before, in front of the Louise school, parked while waiting for the doors to open on rue du Château where she tied up her bike, she worriedly consulted a weather site to measure the risk she had taken by coming to tow in a cotton dress from summer under rare but enormous drops of rain. It was then 8:12 a.m., and the school door remained closed.
That’s not all: the electoral panels which line the walls of the Louise school are sadly empty of the poster of its candidate Sandrine Runel. Walking alongside her daughter, a lady with a fearsomely closed face, framed by impeccable blow-drying despite the humidity, says: “this is the real entrance on the corner, this is the official entrance”.
Stéphanie Léger and a smiling activist who joined her did not let themselves be deterred and, leaflets under their arms, reached the entrance 100m away where chic and slim parents dropped off their children in wreaths of goodbye kisses. until evening. Sandrine Runel on her huge cargo bike that she doesn’t know where to park arrives at the same moment.
The reception of the leaflets by the parents of students is hardly warmer than the weather, “towing at 8 a.m. in Montchat is not necessarily ideal for morale” grumbles the candidate. There are still some clearings, and at the turn of a tense leaflet the assurance of support through the vote and a “courage” slipped like a magic formula quickly boosts the morale of the solidarity assistant that is Sandrine Runel.
It is true that she slept little. She re-watched at 3 a.m. the debate between her and Romain Billard and Anne Brugnera. She is worried about whether she was clear. For her the situation is politically in good shape. But this constituency without visible trace of the National Rally, so different from the rest of France, spoils a little the pleasure of campaigning like in the old world.
@lemediapol
