This Sunday evening, June 30, Place de la République in Paris is filling up little by little. Waving flags in the colors of La France insoumise (LFI), ecologists or socialists, deploying banners with anti-fascist slogans on the immense bronze statue in the shape of an allegory of the Republic, hundreds of young people came again to rally against the far right.
Read also | Live, 2024 legislative results: Olivier Faure denounces the “confused” message from the presidential camp for the second round
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This time, it was at the invitation of the New Popular Front (NFP), the left-wing alliance for which they voted in the first round of these early legislative elections, that they came. Now is not the time for cries of joy. Rather anger at the triumphant result which is emerging for the National Rally (RN). “Youth annoys the National Front”chants the crowd.
Everyone knows that the score of 28.1% with which the NFP is credited at the start of the evening seems insufficient to prevent the victory of the Lepenist party. “It’s encouraging, but not enough”, laments Lucie Frappat, a 26-year-old physiotherapist. Joëlle Caron confides her “sadness”. “I feel like we’re reopening a page of history”, she adds. The name of LFI leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, comes up in conversations. “It would be good if he stepped aside for a cleaner, newer face. We would be calmer for the future »says Romain, an actor and drama teacher, who is nevertheless a fan of the three-time presidential candidate.
“It’s them or us, there’s nothing in between”
It is 11 p.m. when, finally, the NFP executives appear together. “It must be said, Matignon, Macron, it’s over”, proclaims the national secretary of environmentalists, Marine Tondelier. The leader of the Socialist Party (PS), Olivier Faure, re-elected in the first round in Seine-et-Marne, launches an ode to this France “mixed race”who accepts “ all origins, all skin colors”When he speaks, Jean-Luc Mélenchon proclaims, to applause: “There is no longer any escape in this country. It’s them or us, there’s nothing in the middle. »
To go further | The map of legislative results in the first round and the table of qualified candidates
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Alas, behind the voluntarism, the left hides its disappointment at a score that is not as high as it could have been. The very high turnout in these early legislative elections (about twenty points more than in 2022, with more than 65% of voters), something never seen since 1997, does not seem to have really benefited the NFP. The alliance exceeds by a few points the score obtained two years ago by the New Ecological and Social Popular Union (Nupes), when, according to the count carried out by The world According to data from the Ministry of the Interior, she won 26.16% of the vote in the first round, ahead of the presidential coalition (25.8%).
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