Candidate for re-election in the Somme, François Ruffin is aiming for a new mandate in the National Assembly. Will its result live up to its ambition?
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20:09 – The New Popular Front ranked 2nd at the national level
Candidate for the New Popular Front, François Ruffin saw this new alliance come in 2nd position in the first round of the legislative elections. The first estimates credit his camp with 29 to 30% of the votes, or approximately 4 points less than the National Rally, in the lead. What will happen in the 1st constituency of the Somme where François Ruffin is a candidate for re-election?
19:50 – “Chaos”, “unbridled racism”… Ruffin criticizes the RN
“They will continue the same liberal policy that has been pursued for 40 years. The class war, again. With the RN, the rich class will continue to win it.
Their only novelty: unbridled, liberated, uninhibited racism, which will lock the country a little further into chaos” indicated François Ruffin on X (ex-Twitter) on Tuesday.
19:26 – François Ruffin clarifies the position of the left alliance on the regularization of undocumented immigrants
While one in two cooks in the Paris region is an immigrant and more than four in ten for guards and security guards, maintenance workers and childminders according to INSEE figures, François Ruffin wanted to recall the program of the New Popular Front on this very specific point, Thursday June 27 on the social network X. He first proposes “regularization, papers for all workers”. Then, “real jobs for everyone, with status, income, hours, salaries, and more bits of work, in involuntary part-time and in bits of temporary work”.
19:02 – Ruffin violently attacked by Quatennens
During this week of campaigning for the first round of the early legislative elections, François Ruffin, one of the strong men of the New Popular Front, was frontally attacked by Adrien Quatennens, a close friend of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. After Ruffin made it known that Mélenchon was “an obstacle to victory” for the new left-wing alliance, Adrien Quatennens – who is not running for this election, and recently convicted of domestic violence – did not fail to attack Ruffin: “This is no longer a melon, it’s a watermelon! Be careful: if it swells up, it will explode. If Mélenchon and the FI had not invested you, you would not exist. Join the RN directly! We will save time and energy,” he declared.
18:48 – François Ruffin meets the undecided
During his campaign for the Legislative elections, François Ruffin took the side of dialogue with abstainers and undecided voters. “I hadn’t voted for ten years because I was disgusted,” confided a passerby to BFMTV in Abbeville after François Ruffin’s visit this week. She even said she was convinced she would vote for Ruffin in the legislative elections. “I’m honest, I’m voting for Mr. Ruffin.”
18:20 – François Rufin alone on the left?
The quarrels between one side and the other, and in particular between Mélenchon and Ruffin, do not play into the hands of the New Popular Front, which appears divided in this campaign: rather consensual figure of the left coalition, François Ruffin loses the support of his own party, which could well undermine his ambition to become Prime Minister in the event of victory of the popular bloc in the legislative elections.
6:00 p.m. – Ruffin assures that Mélenchon is “an obstacle to the victory of the Popular Front”
At the beginning of this week, François Ruffin wanted to make a clear break with the figure of the rebels, Jean-Luc Mélenchon. “This is not a Jean-Luc Mélenchon endorsement here. It is rather something that repels voters,” he said while traveling near Abbeville, campaigning for the legislative elections and meeting with residents. Ruffin even said that Mélenchon was “an obstacle to the victory of the Popular Front,” particularly because of his numerous media appearances.
François Ruffin, outgoing MP, is a candidate in the first constituency of the Somme during these early legislative elections. A constituency that this man on the ground knows well and that he intends to reconquer after the dissolution of the National Assembly by the Head of State. And François Ruffin has already expressed some wishes in the event of a positive result for the New Popular Front during this legislative election. He did not hesitate to say he was ready to become Prime Minister: “If there is ever a consensus that should lead to a name, I am ready to take the place we want to transform people’s lives” on France Picardy Blue.
The one who is part of Picardy Stand Up! also seems tempted by the position of Minister of Sports: “If ever in the history of our country, whatever position I may occupy, if it is at Matignon as Prime Minister, why not. But if it is as Minister of Sports and I manage to give sport to all, to all the children of our country, I will be proud of it”, he added. First answer this Sunday, June 30 at around 8 p.m. to find out if François Ruffin managed to reach the second round of these legislative elections under the banner of the New Popular Front, created in particular to block the National Rally, winner of the last European elections in France.
Ruffin more popular than Mélenchon?
He also considered that Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who was also mentioned as a potential Prime Minister, was “right to step back” during the legislative campaign because his name arouses “concern” among voters. For his part, the rebellious leader believes in an interview with Figaro on June 20 that “François Ruffin chose to break with him, and not the other way around”. The former MP, like the movement’s leadership, had also been accused by François Ruffin of having “purged” historical figures of the party such as Alexis Corbière, Raquel Garrido or Danielle Simonnet. He then defended himself: “Where is the ‘purge’ that is attributed to me? But I do not deserve his hurtful vindictiveness. Not sure that it serves his ambitions”.
According to the Elabe barometer for The echoespublished on Thursday, June 13, François Ruffin is the third favorite left-wing political figure of the French after Raphaël Glucksmann and François Hollande. He has a 24% positive image against 36% negative, surpassing Jean-Luc Mélenchon, with 16% positive against 70% negative.
What result for François Ruffin in the legislative elections?
His first objective is above all to be re-elected in his constituency, which goes from Abbeville to Amiens. “I am returning to the campaign,” he announced in a press release on June 12. On the RN side, he will face regional councilor Nathalie Ribeiro-Billet, as in 2022. Albane Branlant will represent the presidential majority, Bruno Dumont the centrist Alliance party and Jean-Patrick Baudry Lutte Ouvrière.
On the set of France 3 Picardyduring a debate with his opponents, François Ruffin detailed his program if he were re-elected. He is particularly in favor of indexing wages to inflation: if prices increase by a certain percentage, wages increase by the same amount. He also wants to act to consolidate jobs: “the big problem today is that we have transformed jobs into “piece jobs”, that is to say that we have reduced the share of permanent contracts in employment by five points. Why? Because there has been an explosion of self-employed people. However, jobs must provide status and income”, he argued. He also wants to redirect public aid for businesses to “very small businesses/SMEs and industry”. He also says he is against selective and targeted immigration in certain sectors, but not the idea of a border.
In 2022, François Ruffin, who was attached to NUPES at the time, was easily re-elected with more than 61% of the votes in the second round against the RN candidate, Nathalie Ribeiro-Billet. He had won 40.09% in the first round. This result represented an increase compared to 2017, when the MP had won 55.97% of the votes in the second round and only 24.32% in the first round. While he can therefore be seen as a contender for victory in the next election, the political context has changed a lot in two years. The RN came out on top with 41% in Abbeville and 24.80% in Amiens in the European elections of June 9 and continues to progress.
Furthermore, according to national polls, the RN remains at the top of voting intentions for the early legislative elections, with a score above the 30% mark. The IFOP poll for LCI, Sud Radio and Le Figaro dated June 20 credits it, for example, with 34% compared to 29% for the left-wing coalition and 22% for the presidential majority. These estimates remain national, and do not give the local political balance of power. However, they highlight a duel which could prove to be close between the dominant political forces.
