“It’s not bad…at least, not that bad”. At 8 p.m. sharp, in the small living room adjoining his office where he gathered a few friends and members of his cabinet to scrutinize on BFM TV the results of the first round of the early legislative elections, Gil Avérous, mayor of Châteauroux, 44,000 inhabitants, leader -place of Indre, still hesitates between worry and relief. Certainly, given at 33% according to the first estimate, the National Rally achieved a record score which places it in a position to win, according to projections, between 230 and 260 seats in the next National Assembly.
“But nothing is decided yet because of the large number of predictable triangles. And the result of the Ensemble! candidates of the presidential majority who totaled 22% of the votes shows that the worst is perhaps not yet certain”wants to believe the elected official, a former LR who joined Macronism in 2022.
In Châteauroux in any case, the scenario of an inevitable victory for the party of Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen came up against good resistance from the outgoing MP François Jolivet who is running for a third term under the Horizons label. At 7 p.m., according to the results of the first “hundreds” – packets of 100 ballots collected in each of the 32 polling stations in the city – he was in the lead with 35.34% of the votes ahead of RN Mylène Wunsch who totaled 31.79%, the LFI – New Popular Front candidate Éloïse Gonzalez came in third position with 29.72%.
A “local MP” who still inspires confidence
“A ranking that may still change when we have, late in the evening, the total and consolidated results of the entire first constituency, particularly its rural part. But which shows that the voters of Châteauroux still largely trust a local MP who knows the terrain and the daily concerns of the people well and that the local counts as much if not more than the national”underlines Gil Avérous.
However, at the same time as participation, the vote in favor of the RN is progressing here as everywhere in France at great speed. In the 2022 legislative elections, its local candidate Mylène Wunsch failed to win in the second tower, victim of abstention and competition from Reconquête!. In the Europeans of June 9, 2024, on the other hand, the breakthrough is made, the Bardella list coming well ahead with more than 33% of the votes at the departmental level, or 10 points better than in the Europeans of 2019.
“A dynamic that can be explained in three words: security, immigration, purchasing power. Three subjects on which the French feel that the government does not listen to them and does not act, or at least not enough. These are problems that do not spare the department affected by deindustrialization in the clothing and automobile subcontracting sectors, to which is added the reform of the military map that made us lose, in 2012, the 1,000 soldiers of the 517th train regiment. Not to mention the insecurity that people link to immigration that has become uncontrollable.underlines Gil Avérous.
The elected official knows the fears and concerns of his constituents by heart. This afternoon of the first round, he will once again take the measure during his traditional tour of the polling stations in the company of his assistant, Florence Petipez, responsible for the formidable task of organizing this election in three weeks, a eve of vacation.
A “clean sweep” election
At the exit of the Victor Hugo school which houses, for the occasion, offices 17 and 18 in the popular district of Beaulieu, Jean-François and Cynthia and their friends Magali and Jean-Dominique, two couples who come “to fulfill their duty” would like to greet ” Mr. Mayor “The exchange is courteous but without any waffle. “What do we expect from this election? That it allows us to give it a good clean sweep!”, says Jean-Dominique. An anger that is understandable: at 45 years old, after twenty-two years at home, he has just been dismissed like the 175 other employees of Impériales Wheels, an automobile rim factory which had to close its doors. after four failed recovery plans and 68 million euros invested for nothing by the State.
Jean-François, for his part, evokes this violence which is beginning to eat away at the city and which he attributes to “new foreigners” from sub-Saharan Africa and the Comoros who “live on social assistance and trafficking”. “In a month and a half, there was four murders in Châteaurouxincluding a settling of scores just a stone’s throw from here with a Kalashnikov. It can’t go on like this!he warns.
In the neighboring Saint-Jean district where the majority of these newly arrived foreigners live, Lilufer and her husband Baram, who came from Turkey, still want to believe that a future is possible for them and their children here. “There are bad ones everywhere, not just here. We just want to work and live in peace. So, yes, I voted. So that there is less racism. But will my voice be of any use? “.
Find them Results of the first round of the 2024 legislative elections, municipality by municipality.
