In a handful of municipalities sometimes unknown before a violent attack occurred there during the past year, the National Rally achieved particularly strong performances this Sunday, June 30. Between the first round of the legislative elections of 2022 and that of 2024, the Lepenist party is experiencing clear progress in these lands.
Marianne takes you to six constituencies affected, in the last twelve months, by a news item with strong national resonance. Everywhere, the same observation of an explosion of the RN.
In Courbevoie: after the rape of a Jewish teenager, the RN triples
This was undoubtedly one of the major news events of this express legislative campaign. Saturday June 15, a 12-year-old schoolgirl found herself insulted, beaten up and then raped by a group of boys of the same age. The latter could not have tolerated that the young girl, Jewish, would hide her religion from them. The RN quickly seizes the drama. “Since October 7, an atmosphere of anti-Semitism has spread and developed in our country that must be combatted”reacts in the crowd Jordan Bardella.
On a land hostile to the National Rally, the Marinist candidate Carole Roussel does not however disturb the electoral game since the LR Philippe Juvin, supported by the presidential majority, is returned to the Assembly on the evening of this first round.
That said, in two years, the RN has tripled its score in this third constituency of Hauts-de-Seine, which includes almost all of Courbevoie and its 80,000 inhabitants: 14.3% compared to 5.2% in 2022.
Crépol: echoes of a national tragedy
The events of the fall of 2023 have given this peaceful town in the Drôme a sad reputation. On the night of November 18-19, a village ball turned tragic: a fight broke out between groups of young people, some of whom had come from a nearby city. Blows rained down. Thomas Perotto, 16, lost his life. Without further ado, the political class and the media got carried away, as if revealing the identity fractures that were shaking the country. The judicial investigation must still determine who dealt the fatal blow.
ALSO READ: Crépol, Grande-Synthe… In cities recently marked by news items, the RN is in control
In any case, at the polls, the National Rally takes precedence over its opponents in the fourth constituency of Drôme. With 38.4% of the votes in the first round, Thibaut Monnier doubles his team’s score compared to 2022 (20.1%). Behind, neck and neck, the New Popular Front candidate Isabelle Pagani (26.3%) and the outgoing LR Emmanuelle Anthoine (24%) illustrate the decline of their respective parties in this southern land.
Vieux-Condé, the assassination of a florist in the Roussel district
Who would have imagined that this quiet town on the outskirts of Valenciennes would be the scene of such a sordid murder? Vieux-Condé was shocked when its inhabitants learned of the fatal attack on one of their own on the night of July 5 to 6. Philippe Mathot, we discover, died for having simply asked three noisy young people on the public highway to be quiet, around 11 p.m.
The insults flew before this 72-year-old former florist was beaten up in front of his home. He succumbed to his injuries a few days later, on July 11. The main suspect, a 17-year-old minor, is being prosecuted for “attempted murder”, the other two placed in pre-trial detention.
Is it this memory that precipitated the fall of Fabien Roussel, national secretary of the Communist Party, in his stronghold in the 20th constituency in the North? Because this June 30, it was the RN candidate Guillaume Florquin who won in the first round with 50.3% of the votes, relegating his left-wing opponent to 31.2%. In 2022, he achieved a similar score at the same stage (34.1%), with the difference that Guillaume Florquin came second with 32.6% of the votes. Fabien Roussel easily beat him in the second round.
Grande-Synthe, the shadow of an ambush on the ballot
Still in the North, the fate of Philippe Coopman also finds an echo in the vote. The unconscious body of this young 23-year-old educator was found, Tuesday April 16 in the early morning, in a parking lot in Grande-Synthe. Disfigured, bare-chested, pants torn off. What was supposed to be a romantic date via a dating site turned out to be a fatal trap. Three young suspects were arrested immediately afterwards, an investigation was opened by the Dunkirk prosecutor’s office for murder by an organized gang.
In the thirteenth of the North, to which this municipality of 20,000 inhabitants is attached, the RN has also made notable progress in two years. Its candidate Maxence Accart collected 43.5% of the votes, +13 points in two years (30.2% for the RN in 2022). He will face in the second round Julien Gokel, the successor of the outgoing machinist Christine Decodts, for a duel which promises to be close given the withdrawal announced by the candidate of the New Popular Front.
READ ALSO: “Always a pocketknife on me”: victims of ultra-violence, they talk about their life afterwards
Châteauroux: the progression of the RN after the death of a 15-year-old teenager
On April 27, in Châteauroux, a 15-year-old boy died from his injuries. In this case, several stab wounds inflicted by an Afghan of the same age, who allegedly could not stand his victim’s mockery about his rap. Jordan Bardella seized on the story, railing in a solemn video “a senseless migration policy that endangers the French people”.
The first constituency of Indre, which includes Châteauroux, places the RN in the lead on the evening of this first round, unlike 2022 where it received a non-qualifying third place. By collecting 40.2% of the votes, candidate Mylène Wunsch almost doubles her 2022 score (22.3%). In terms of the presidential majority, the outgoing François Jolivet comes behind with 35.1% of the votes (compared to 27.5% two years ago), 14 points ahead of the NFP Eloïse Gonzalez.
Rantigny: RN groundswell after the horror
After a three-week coma following a rape in the neighbouring town of Creil, Shannon took her last breath at the age of 13.
On March 27, 2024, the circumstances of this act that caused the young girl to suffer cardio-respiratory arrest are still unclear. A student at the Simone-Veil college in Cauffry (Oise), Shannon went to a friend’s house on March 6 in Rantigny, a town with 3,000 inhabitants. Two boys aged 18 and 19 arrived to have possibly consensual sex. Two hours later, Shannon lies “in a pool of blood with a gaping wound in her vagina”after “possible acts of barbarism”according to the family’s lawyer, Frédéric Le Bonnois.
READ ALSO: Alain Bauer: “For five centuries, we have managed to domesticate violence… the cycle has been reversed”
Here again, no exception: the RN tsunami submerges the seventh district of Oise. By obtaining 40.4% of the votes, the Marinist David Magnier, a novice in the exercise, catapults the 25% by his party to the same place in 2022. Largely in the lead in the first round in the last legislative elections with 26.6% of the votes, the candidate of the united left Loïc Pen improves his score (27.2%) but finds himself left behind in view of July 7.
