The mayor of Perpignan won Sunday in the canton of Perpignan-Canohès, where less than a quarter of the voters expressed themselves.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
The mayor of Perpignan Louis Aliot won the departmental partial election on Sunday, December 4 in the canton of Perpignan-Canohès, with 53.53 % of the votes cast. The vice-president of the National Rally (RN) thus becomes the first far-right departmental advisor of the Pyrénées-Orientales.
In the second round of this election, Mr. Aliot and his binomial Carla Muti, municipal councilor in Canohès, beat the various right duo of Jean-Louis Chambon and Florence Micolau (46.47 %). Participation has only reached 23.98 % of registrants. The new elected official said he was “satisfied with the result”, while adding: “Now you still have to keep. There is a very low participation”.
In the first round, on November 27, the participation had reached 21.63 %. With 44.07 % of the votes cast, Mr. Aliot and Ms. Muti had already preceded Jean-Louis Chambon and Florence Micolau (27.63 %). With 26.36 % of the votes, the outgoing departmental advisor, Mathias Blanc (Socialist Party), had been eliminated, before calling “to vote Chambon to make Aliot”.
In May 2021, in this 5 e canton of Perpignan-Canohès, the PS pair had won in the second round with 51 % of the votes, but less than a hundred more than that of the RN (49 %). The Council of State then invalidated the election because of the ineligibility of the candidate of the Party of Marine Le Pen, a former customs officials.
anchoring of the RN in the department
The party now led by Jordan Bardella, who took the presidency by defeating Louis Aliot in early November, continues his anchoring in a department of which he holds the main city, as well as the four seats of deputy since the legislative elections in June .
For Aliot, this victory “gives an indication. This is the first time that the RN has entered the departmental council and it has the value of a symbol for the future”, he told the agency France-press. “We have four on four deputies, now we enter the departmental council after taking the town hall. We are on a dynamic and we must not break this movement,” he said.
Despite the defeat of the outgoing advisor, socialists and communists will keep control of the departmental assembly. For the president (PS) of the department, Hermeline Malherbe, this election “took place in a very particular context, which has in no way allowed a serene campaign”. The election of the RN binomial “is only the sad outcome,” she added in a press release.