The ambient tumult, the small political arrangements, the wars of apparatus, those who betray, those who denounce those who betray, Macron and his dissolution, here, no one cares, or almost… On the other hand, the RN at the gates of the government causes a lot of talk.
“Voting, what difference does it make?”
In the Point-du-jour district, around this remote and disadvantaged island of Saint-Laurent-du-Var, residents have been fatalistic for a long time. And resigned to not counting in the debate. Or miscount on these very right-wing lands. “Voting, what will it change for me? Whether it’s Le Pen or someone else, they’re the same, no one likes Arabs, we’re suspected of everything, we’re frowned upon. On TV when we talk about us, it’s always: security here, security there, we are never mentioned for the right reasons.” growls Ali, his hands in the engine of his old jew’s harp, almost entirely broken down at the foot of a multi-colored mini-tower which is falling into ruins. With his wife, he now lives on “HLM just behind, much cleaner.”
“I will not go for the deputies”
His son, who fled this disenchanted city as soon as he could to start his family in Cagnes, long before the towers were demolished, helps his father that morning. “ I did not go to vote for Europe, and I will not go for the deputies either. he blurted. Disillusioned, he points out: “You think politicians care about us? Look around you, that’s their answer, that’s where they made us live.” Sitting on a chair, in front of the city stadium, a plump old gentleman joins in the conversation: “ Soon we will no longer exist, they are demolishing the buildings, one after the other. It’s rotten, but it’s our home.” Voter? “No way”, lightning-t-il.
Bardella: 47.03% of the European votes
It’s not the excitement at the end of Boulevard du Point-du-Jour. A place in between. Between the bustling city and the dormitory suburbs.
“Here, they all vote for the National Front (sic) there’s no point in going there”, sighs Daniel who lives in Carré Laurentin, in social housing. In Saint-Laurent-du-Var, if the mayor, Joseph Segura, ex-LR, is today Macronist, the far-right party dominates the other ballots. In 2022, Mariner Bryan Masson was riding the 6th constituency to Republican Laurence Trastour-Isnart. In the Europeans, Jordan Bardella received 47.03% of the votes. In the presidential election, two years before, Marine Le Pen finished the race in the lead in the second round with 57.24% of the votes: almost eight points more than her overall result in the Alpes-Maritimes.
“Before I voted communist, now I no longer vote Mélenchon, he’s excited. At the age I am, I just want to be peaceful. My life is behind me, I wish good luck to the new generations”, said the former bus driver.
Further on at the entrance to La Tramontane, Mireille, who worked for years at the town hall, is, on the contrary, delighted with the situation. “It was time for the right to agree with Le Pen. We need to clean up France. I am retired and I earn less than 1,000 euros, is that normal? I say bravo to Éric Ciotti. And our little deputy [Bryan Masson, le sortant RN] must be re-elected. I have already spoken to him, he is very good, very polite and smiling”the septuagenarian asserts cheerfully. “Around me, everyone votes for Marine Le Pen, we all voted for Bardella in the Europeans.”
“I don’t want a story”
Avenue du 11-Novembre, traders do not want to talk politics. “I don’t want any fuss, the vote is secret,” stammers a hairdresser. No better in this pizzeria: “You journalists want to tell us who to vote for.”
Return to Boulevard du Point-du-Jour. Between two overflowing trash cans, Joshua waits for the bus. Within a few days, he could have voted. “I’ll be 18 on July 25th”, confides the teenager. His father works in a bar in the town center of the town. The boy shrugs his shoulders: “He always tells me that he avoids talking about politics with clients because they all vote for Marine Le Pen. He even has two friends who are of Moroccan origin and who vote for her. I don’t understand. Yes I was North African, I wouldn’t vote like that. My father says they are racist.” “When I can vote, I will choose the one who will do something for people who don’t have enough money to live and who will give work to everyone,” he concludes, full of illusions.
