He presented himself as a candidate for the party of Emmanuel Macron and his allies in the fifth constituency of the French abroad, which includes residents in Spain
Manuel Valls, former French Prime Minister and former Barcelona City Council member, was eliminated in the first round of legislative elections in France. Valls, 59, was running as a candidate for Emmanuel Macron’s party and his allies in the fifth constituency of the French abroad, which includes residents of Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Monaco.
Valls hoped to win the seat to be able to return to French politics, after four years of absence due to his Catalan adventure. The former socialist resigned in October 2018 from his French deputy seat and presented himself in May 2019 with Ciudadans to the mayor of Barcelona, his hometown. He did not manage to be mayor, although he was elected councilman. He resigned from his charter in August 2021, mid-term, after two years in office.
“Goodbye Twitter,” Valls wrote on this social network, after learning that he had been eliminated in the first round after obtaining 15.85% of the votes. The former prime minister immediately closed his Twitter account.
Valls’ defeat was applauded by the left. From the “until never” of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of La Francia Insumisa, to the “goodbye (in Spanish) Manuel Valls” of the ecologist mayor of Grenoble, Éric Piolle, who accuses the former socialist of “treason” to the left.
Bilbao’s José Miguel Sánchez Pérez, candidate of the Union of Centrists and Ecologists (UCE), was also eliminated, who was sixth of the 12 candidates who were running in that constituency.
A Macron dissident
The seat of the fifth constituency of French expatriates will be disputed in the second round by Renaud Le Berre, the candidate of the union of leftist parties (Nupes), and the outgoing deputy Stéphane Vojetta, a dissident candidate from Macron’s party.
Vojetta refused to withdraw to make room for Valls, named the party’s official candidate by the president. And he stood for election defying Paris. Vojetta has already said that if he is re-elected deputy he will join the presidential majority in the National Assembly.
French expats voted around the world a week earlier than their compatriots. Legislative elections in France take place on June 12 and 19.
In nine of the eleven constituencies of French residents abroad, there will be a duel between the candidate of Macron’s party and the candidate of the union of leftist parties (Nupes), which brings together La Francia Insumisa (the French Podemos) and socialists , environmentalists and communists.
The Ensemble coalition (Together), which brings together Macron’s party and its allies, was in the lead in the first round in eight of the eleven constituencies of French residents abroad.
The left will be present in ten of the second rounds that will be held in the eleven expatriate constituencies. In 2017, the left-wing parties, running separately, only managed to qualify for the second round in five of the eleven constituencies.
rise from the left
Five days before the first round of the legislative elections, the Macronists are concerned about the rise of the left in the voting intention polls and the possibility that Macron, re-elected president in April, will not achieve an absolute majority, 289 of the 577 seats in the National Assembly.
According to the latest poll by the Ifop institute, Macron’s party and its allies would obtain between 275 and 310 seats; and the leftist union (Nupes) between 170 and 205 seats. The Republicans (moderate right) would achieve between 35 and 55 deputies. Regrouping National, Marine Le Pen’s far-right party), would win between 20 and 50 seats, which would be a big jump from the six deputies it currently has in the lower house.
For the moment, the polls exclude the scenario that the left-wing union (Nupes) obtains an absolute majority in the legislative elections. Mélenchon dreams of this happening, which, according to his calculations, would force Macron to appoint him prime minister since he would be the party with the most seats in the National Assembly.
#Manuel #Valls #eliminated #French #legislative #elections