The outgoing Macronist MP from the Loire, who came third, had indulged in a speech at Hanouna’s when he chaired the commission of inquiry into DTT. His withdrawal is all the more reassuring.
In the series “I retire with honors”, it is not necessarily on him that we would have bet first. However, the outgoing Macronist deputy of the 1st constituency of the Loire, Quentin Bataillon, announced this Monday, July 1 that he was withdrawing in favor of the candidate of the New Popular Front, Pierrick Courbon, who came in first with 40.34% of the votes. The candidate Ensemble, for his part, is a good third, with 23.72% of the votes, preceded by the RN candidate Marie Simon (31.97%). He therefore applies without trembling the advice of the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, perhaps helped, it is true, by the socialist (and not rebellious) label of his NFP competitor.
If Quentin Bataillon’s attitude was so scrutinized, it is because the deputy of Saint-Etienne had at one time seemed to look complacently at the other camp. On April 2, in fact, the one who was then president of the commission of inquiry on TNT frequencies had aroused general indignation by going to the set of the show Do not touch My TVhosted on CNews by Cyril Hanouna… just a few days after the host’s hearing before the said commission, responsible for considering the allocation of frequencies. Better still, in front of the Bolloré cameras, the Saint-Étienne MP allowed himself this confidence concerning Yann Barthès, host of Daily on TMC which does not hide its hostility to the extreme right : “I think that’s the first time I got angry, he had a pretty arrogant attitude from the beginning, he refused to answer our questions.”
The implicit position was considered sufficiently astonishing for his group leader at the Palais-Bourbon, Sylvain Maillard, and the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, to call him to order. The first reminding him of his obligations to“impartiality” as commission president, the second questioning itself squarely about its “discernment”. Although legally impossible, the question of his dismissal had even agitated the deputies.
Suffice to say that his behavior on the evening of the first round was particularly observed. And his possible continuation, in the context of a three-way race, was particularly feared insofar as it could have favored the RN candidate. The surprise was all the more unexpected when the man who had given Cyril Hanouna and his columnists acquired to the extreme right a particularly friendly visit, used a much more republican tone to explain his withdrawal, despite a dig at his opponent: “Despite my qualification for the second round of these legislative elections, I will withdraw. Our territory deserves better than an elected representative of the RN. This withdrawal must call on the candidate of the New Popular Front to return to the path of social democracy in both substance and methods. We will be vigilant. My attachment and commitment to Saint-Etienne and our constituency are intact.” It was now or never to show “discernment”.
