It is a constant. Poll after poll, in the Alpes-Maritimes, the towns where a left-wing candidate comes out on top can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Saorge, a village of 449 inhabitants perched on the heights of Roya, is one of these long-established bastions on the left.
“Even Jean-Pierre Pernaut has already spoken about the score achieved by Mitterrand in Saorge in the 80s”smiled a resident of Fontan interviewed in 2022 at the time of the presidential election, when Nice morning highlighted the historical difference in votes between Saorge “the Red one” and its neighboring commune which placed Marine Le Pen and the National Rally in the lead.
A few weeks later, during the legislative elections, the inhabitants of Saorge, faithful to their left-wing traditionvoted for the Nupes candidate. When those from Fontan still designated the National Rally candidate, Alexandra Masson, who will become their deputy.
Saorge deprives the RN of a clean sweep
This Sunday, Virginie Parentthe candidate of the New Popular Front/PCF, came in with a large margin on your mindgarnering 58.85% of the vote ahead of the outgoing RN MP Alexandra Masson (19.23%) and Anne-Pascale Guedon, the Ensemble! candidate for the presidential majority (15.77%). By far the best score for a candidate from the left on the Côte d’Azur.
A local plebiscite which prevents the outgoing president from achieving full house in his 4th constituencywhere she was re-elected hands down for a new term (56.27%). This Sunday, the inhabitants of Saorge will therefore not even have the opportunity to show their attachment to the left during the second round. An attachment that is faltering?
A narrowing gap between the left and the far right
The percentage achieved by Virginie Parent this Sunday is however slightly lower than that achieved in 2022 by Sophie Bournot-Poulet, then candidate of Nupes (59.72%). The latter had arrived on your mind in the first round ahead of the outgoing Alexandra Valetta-Ardisson (19.44%), for the presidential majority and far ahead of Alexandra Masson (6.48%). The candidate of the National Rally, not yet a deputy, had only gleaned 14 little voices.
This Sunday, the latter collected some three more time (50), when the left-wing candidate only won about twenty (153 against 129). The presidential majority remains stable (41 against 42 two years earlier). At the same time, the number of voters increased from 220 to 264 voters. On paper, participation seems to have worked in favor of the RN.
“Here too, people say: ‘we’ve had enough'”
In Saorge, the RN is gradually weaving its web. On June 9, during the European elections, Jordan Bardella had already collected 15.38% votes, only 13 votes behind Manon Aubry (LFI) who came in first.
For Brigitte Besc, mayor since 2014 and used to having her phone ring the day after the election to discuss this electoral particularity, “153 votes for the left, that’s still huge”, she points out. And even if “she is not happy”she remains nevertheless aware of the rise of the RN in mentalities: “We are not outside of everything that is happening at the national level. Here too, people say to themselves “we’re fed up, we haven’t tried”.
From there to say that the commune can take the same direction as Fontan? Not really. This June 30, down below, Alexandra Masson left only crumbs to her opponents. In two years, her score there went from 27.45% (56 votes) to 61% (158 votes). “She had the benefit of being an outgoing MP”believes Brigitte Besc who will be able to be satisfied with one thing: “We won’t have to mobilize people next Sunday.”
