Sociology, public services, neighborhood voting: several objective reasons explain this difference in voting between urban and rural voters.
This first round of legislative elections was no exception to the rule of the divide between town and countryside. Montpellier voted overwhelmingly for the left-wing Popular Front, offering victory in the first round to Nathalie Oziol in the 2nd, while voters gave their votes to the National Rally everywhere around. This is the case for all the constituencies straddling the two typologies of territory, namely the 1st, 3rd, 8th and 9th.
Divide between metropolitan France and the rest of the country
“It’s not just in Montpellier, it’s the case in all metropolisesexplains political scientist Michel Crespy, who cites in passing Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux. There is a divide between metropolitan France and the rest of the country.” The expert prefers the term “interland” to that of rurality. “Lunel or peri-urban towns like Grabels or Saint-Gély-du-Fesc are not rural. And the further you get from the centre, the greater the social and political divide.” We observe the phenomenon elsewhere in the world: “New York is not New Jersey or Portland is not Oregon.”
“Younger, more qualified…”
So what explains this dichotomy? “The population is younger, more educated, richer and more oriented towards the rest of the world”analyzes Michel Crespy. Another important reason: “This population has all public and private services available to it. Desertification is one of the main causes of the RN. This is indicative of a problem of regional planning.”
“It’s a bit like two rooms, two atmospheresnoted Mayor Michaël Delafosse on Sunday evening, after the count. The territorial divide between the big cities and the rest of the country translates into a political divide.” However, “there is not one but several rural areas”, pleads Rhany Slimane, who travelled across the vast 4th constituency, from Lodève to Ganges via Mèze, alongside the outgoing MP Sébastien Rome (NFP). “The coastline does not vote like Pic Saint-Loup or Larzac.”
In Ganges, the RN Manon Bouquin, candidate in the 4th, came one vote ahead of the incumbent LFI Sébastien Rome (726 and 725 out of 1891 voters, Eliaou achieving 308 votes). An increase in the score of the extreme right in territories previously acquired by the left, which does not surprise Michel Fratissier, the mayor and president of the community of communes. “In the last presidential election, Marine Le Pen was already ahead in our town, in the 2022 legislative elections, Sébastien Rome only came through with a 674-vote lead, closely followed by the RN. As for the European elections, the score was very strong. I don’t know the RN voters in Ganges, they are below the radar. I think they live with the worry of the decline in their purchasing power. And that in the “competition of fears”, given LFI’s call for perpetual disorder, the candidates of this party appear as those who would further destabilize the country. That this is based on something unfounded is not the problem, it is the feeling of many people in France. This strategy of chaos is a serious political error.”
“A simplistic and caricatured speech”
Nathalie Oziol refutes this city-country divide. “This is a simplistic, caricatured speech, relayed by the extreme right. It is much more contrasted than that, including in the countryside. We are also qualified for the second rounds in rural areas. I am thinking of Sébastien Rome, in Creuse, the outgoing rebellious MP is also qualified. Our momentum crosses all territories. The vote, including in rural areas, is much more contrasted than what the National Rally is saying.”
The fact remains that the neighborhood vote benefited the New Popular Front. Nathalie Oziol, very committed to the Palestinian cause, undoubtedly benefited from the Muslim vote in La Paillade in particular. “The Muslim vote rose to 62% for the New Popular Front in France”, recalls Michel Crespy. “Strong dynamics cross Montpellier but they also exist in landlocked territories. I do not make a distinction between the demands, the aspirations of working-class neighborhoods and those of the countryside because they are the same: having public services that work, simply being able to live with dignity.”
The absence of a rural candidate, on the contrary, has increased the RN’s score in the villages. The spectre “of an urban elite who wants to impose their way of life” was able to resurface thanks to this election. “Lands attached to traditions, like in Petite Camargue with bouvine, vote very right.” Two irreconcilable worlds?
