The press release, sent early in the evening on Monday, July 1, seems to have been written in bitter ink by the former mayor of Billère, Jean-Yves Lalanne (Democratic and Social Left). The dissident candidate from the Popular Front, who came third in the 1st constituency (with 19.95% of the vote) and qualified for a three-way race behind the RN François Verrière (27.96%) and the outgoing MoDem Josy Poueyto (26.82%), announced that he was withdrawing. A decision that opened the way to a victory for the Macronist candidate on Sunday, July 7.
“When analyzing the results, it is perfectly clear that our duo (with Stéphanie Maza, Editor’s note), elected officials from the field, known and recognized, were the best placed to win this election. But the division has borne fruit. The national rule of withdrawal from the New Popular Front tends to apply here too, even if the situation is different.
There is a risk of erosion of the score. Even if the Macronist candidate Josy Poueyto has more reserves of votes than the RN, part of the left-wing electorate in the constituency fears the accession to the National Assembly of an RN deputy and we reject this. None of our voters’ votes should be transferred to the National Rally.
We are making this decision consciously and responsibly.”
The RN risk
At first, Jean-Yves Lalanne had assured that he would maintain his candidacy, believing in his chances with a massive transfer of votes from Jean Sanroman, the candidate officially invested by the New Popular Front. The young Insoumis had obtained 13.86% of the votes. On Sunday evening, Jean-Yves Lalanne expected “a loyal, honest and systematic withdrawal”, which would allow the left to win: “A credible scenario” according to him.
But the uncertainties of the transfer of votes – notably those of the LR Sandrine Lafargue – which could have given the advantage to the RN candidate, and pushed Jean-Yves Lalanne, champion of the union of the left for years, to take on the historic responsibility of a swing of the Pau constituency to the extreme right.
With the pressure from the national apparatuses which are trying, on both the right and the left, to resuscitate the “republican front”, the situation was becoming untenable for the former mayor of Billère and main opponent of François Bayrou in the Agglo Pau area.
The unsuccessful candidate in the 2022 legislative elections, beaten by only 500 votes by Josy Poueyto, was hoping to hold an unexpected revenge. He will have been the victim, on the one hand, of his proximity to the Insoumis Corbière and Garrido, “purged” by the Mélenchonist apparatus at LFI which pushed them to dissent. And on the other hand, of his position as an opportunistic “returnee”, just a few days after resigning from his mandate as mayor of Billère on June 5 – to prepare the conquest of Pau?
The former socialist, a figure of the Democratic and Social Left (founded in 2018 by Gérard Filoche), also had to endure the ordeal of seeing his successor at the town hall of Billère, Arnaud Jacottin, excluded from the office of the Agglo council which was waiting for him, during a stormy council meeting on June 27.
In his press release, he calls for “the outgoing MP (Josy Poueyto), with her usual way of speaking, to stop insulting the candidates”, and to respect her electorate and her elected representatives “by ceasing to practice discrimination or exclusion”.
