This Sunday evening, June 30, the Place de la République in Paris is gradually filling up. Brandishing flags in the colors of La France Insoumise (LFI), environmentalists or socialists, unfurling banners with anti-fascist slogans on the immense bronze statue in the shape of an allegory of the Republic, hundreds of young people have come once again to gather against the extreme right.
Read also | 2024 Legislative Elections: Relive the election night of the first round
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This time, it was at the invitation of the New Popular Front (NFP), the left-wing alliance for which they voted in the first round of these early legislative elections, that they came. Now is not the time for cries of joy. Rather anger at the triumphant result which is emerging for the National Rally (RN). “Youth annoys the National Front”chants the crowd.
Everyone knows that the score of 28% with which the NFP is credited, according to the latest results from the Ministry of the Interior, seems insufficient to prevent the victory of the Lepenist party. “It’s encouraging, but not enough”, laments Lucie Frappat, a 26-year-old physiotherapist. Joëlle Caron confides her “sadness”. “I have the feeling that we are reopening a page of history”, she adds. The name of LFI leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, comes up in conversations. “It would be good if he stepped aside for a cleaner, newer figure. We would be more at peace for the future.”says Romain (he did not wish to give his name), an actor and drama teacher, yet a fan of the three-time presidential candidate.
“It’s them or us, there’s nothing in between”
It is 11 p.m. when, finally, the NFP executives appear together. “It must be said, Matignon, Macron, it’s over”, proclaims the national secretary of Ecologists, Marine Tondelier. The first secretary of the Socialist Party (PS), Olivier Faure, re-elected in the first round in Seine-et-Marne, launches an ode to this France “mixed”who accepts ” all origins, all skin colors »When he speaks, Jean-Luc Mélenchon proclaims, to applause: “There is no longer any escape in this country. It’s them or us, there’s nothing in the middle. »
To go further | The map of the results of the legislative elections in the first round and the table of qualified candidates
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Alas, behind voluntarism, the left hides its disappointment at a score which is not as high as it could have been. The very high participation in these early legislative elections (around 20 points more than in 2022, with more than 66.7% of voters), unheard of since 1997, does not seem to have really benefited the NFP. The alliance exceeds by a few points the score obtained two years ago by the New Ecological and Social People’s Union, when, according to the count carried out by The world According to data from the Ministry of the Interior, she won 26.16% of the vote in the first round, ahead of the presidential coalition (25.8%).
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