In the Pyrenees-Atlantiques, the 4e constituency will not deviate from the rule of triangulars for the second round of the legislative elections, on July 7. Sunday June 30, it was the outgoing deputy Iñaki Echaniz (New Popular Front) who came in first, with 38.01%, ahead of the National Rally candidate, Sylviane Lopez, with 25.62%.
Just behind this duo, it is Jean Lassalle, candidate of his own label, who was able to mathematically qualify with 18.05% but especially 12.92% of registered voters, when 12.5% was needed to be able to stay. From then on, the decision of the figure of the Aspe valley could seem not very obvious.
But, shortly after 8 p.m., the candidate was formal: he would have to be counted on on July 7. “I am calm, I did what I thought was useful to do, freely, without constraint. With Barthélémy Aguerre, my substitute, we had a difficult campaign. But if I am there, it is because the voters wanted me to, so I will of course participate in the second round. In any case, it shows that returns to politics are always very difficult,” said the man who is seeking a fifth term as a deputy, who did not run in 2022 for health reasons.
“The Anquetil of the second round”
His position nevertheless seems fragile, even if we know, in Béarn and the Basque Country (the constituency straddles the two territories), that “Lassalle is a man of the second rounds”. This is evidenced by the formidable reserve of votes that he sought in 2017 to win, attracting 11,642 more voters in the second round than in the first round, where he came second behind the LREM candidate.
This Sunday, June 30, he assured, “if we are afraid, we do not engage in politics. Those who are afraid can just go to bed or go to a nursing home. If the voters wanted me to be in the second round, I must respect universal suffrage, no matter what happens in the second round. I am a man of intuition, it is my first quality, it has always guided me. »
As he always says between two rounds, “I am the Poulidor of the first round and the Anquetil of the second. This time, Anquetil must surpass himself, and that does not displease me. I want to have the feeling of having given the best of myself at the end of the event. I am a fighter, I do not want to have the slightest human regret.”
