Euphoria and anger in Bordeaux after shock election result

” I can not believe it. “

This is the response of a left-wing activist to the exit poll which gave the left the lead in the French legislative elections.

As the ballots were counted in Pessac, in the Bordeaux region, disbelief gave way to euphoria at the announcement of the victory of the New Popular Front (NFP) and not the far-right National Rally (RN). Volunteers, with tears in their eyes, embraced each other and cried out in triumph as the winning candidate, Sébastien Saint-Pasteur, entered.

“I’m enjoying this moment,” Salima Z, an NPF activist, told me. “I haven’t thought about what comes next yet.”

The holding of the “republican front” was decisive in the victory of the NFP. This front – a form of forced tactical voting, where some candidates withdraw to leave only one option to voters opposed to the extreme right – prevented many RN candidates from winning.

East of Bordeaux, RN candidate Sandrine Chadourne thought she would easily win the seat she was seeking. But she was ultimately narrowly defeated thanks to voters like winemaker Paul Carrille, who said he considered voting against the far right to be his democratic duty.

“Our institutions are strong. But it would be very bad if the far right won,” Mr Carrille told me in front of Libourne’s medieval town hall.

Voters seem to have understood that they are in a unique, and for many, particularly dangerous, political situation. Voter turnout in the country is the highest in more than 40 years. In some constituencies where the RN had a chance of winning, the figures were higher in the second round than in the first.

NFP candidates also benefited from campaigns that were often rooted in their regions. As Mr. Saint-Pasteur, a longtime local elected official, walked around the town of Pessac on election day, he appeared to know many voters, greeting them by name.

On the other hand, his RN opponent was an 18-year-old high school student who was accused of having avoided examination of the facts by refusing to debate between the two rounds of voting.