“We need a rally from the right to the centre.” This Tuesday in Poissy, Édouard Philippe came to support the outgoing MP for the 12th constituency of Yvelines (Poissy, Plaisir, Beynes) Karl Olive, who came out on top last Sunday with 40.5% of the votes cast. “Not everyone can be Prime Minister,” believes the candidate (Renaissance), who is involved in a three-way race in the second round against the New Popular Front and the National Rally.
Find on our dedicated pages the results of the first round of legislative elections in Paris, Lyon, Marseille as well as the results of the second round from 8 p.m. on Sunday, July 7.
The opportunity to discuss, over coffee, the disappointing results of the presidential camp in the first round. And concerns in several constituencies, such as that of Nadia Hai, in a bad position in the 7th. The opportunity, also, to affirm Karl Olive’s anchoring on the right. A right of local elected officials. Before the president of the Horizons party, he brought in ministers Rachida Dati and Gérald Darmanin. If he chose them, it is because these big names are also respectively mayor of Le Havre (Seine-Maritime), of the 7th arrondissement of Paris and former mayor of Tourcoing.
A deployment of resources that perhaps justifies this express campaign. “Fifteen days to convince, it’s a challenge that is not easy to take up,” admits Édouard Philippe.
Support that does not scare his opponents
So much support in one week, “it’s a sign that Karl Olive can no longer convince”, interprets his opponent from the New Popular Front, Christophe Massiaux. “He has only obtained 600 additional votes since the 2022 legislative election”, tackles the environmentalist. For Jean-Louis Mettelet, from the RN, “it is not the support of politicians in office for several years that counts. They are out of touch. It is the vote of the people that is important, and until proven otherwise, it is the National Rally that was solicited.”
Karl Olive’s supporters nevertheless have local experience in common. And that says a lot about the way the outgoing MP sees politics. Exit the technocrats, who are nevertheless the hallmark of Macron’s party. And it is not Joséphine Kollmannsberger, mayor (LR) of Plaisir, who would say otherwise. “He knows the problems that people encounter because he comes from the field,” she judges. People did not vote for the party, they voted for the man.”
