French election: Lyon heading to far right raises fears of 'Chicago-on-Rhone'

Failed efforts to block RN candidate highlights crumbling Republican front

Centrist squabbling in Lyon has undermined the Republican front, a system of alliances set up by mainstream political parties to limit the gains of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN).

A last-minute effort to block the far right from achieving an absolute majority in the French National Assembly led to more than 200 centrist and left-wing candidates stepping down overnight before a second round of voting takes place on Sunday. The establishment is grappling with the possibility that a party founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen, a Holocaust denier, take power. It has raised concerns that some people could take to the streets in protest.

“I really don’t want to see the RN in power,” said Stephanie Macia, 52, a property negotiator, as she scrolled through the names of candidates in her district in Lyon, France’s second biggest city and a bastion of centre-right conservatism.

Ms Macia had hoped the candidate for whom she voted, a centrist ally of President Emmanuel Macron, would withdraw from the race and favour the left-wing candidate who came ahead of him. The goal of such move would be to encourage voters to snub the far-right candidate on Sunday in the second round of the legislative election.

They think Lyon is Chicago and there’s going to be a civil war

But in this case, the centrist politician did not budge, in all likelihood because the far right’s score in her district was relatively low and its chances of winning were slim. “It’s problematic for me. You never know what might happen in the three-way races,” Ms Macia told The National.

Confusion buoys far right

There will probably be no far-right wave inside Lyon, a bourgeois city known for its high-end gastronomy and sun-drenched walks along the Rhone river. But Marine Le Pen's RN party is expected to make inroads as many local voters from the traditional right have been left confused by the spectacular implosion of their party after Mr Macron’s surprise call for snap elections.

Eric Ciotti, the current leader of Les Republicains (LR), the conservative party that carries the heritage of Second World War hero Charles de Gaulle, caused uproar last month by announcing an alliance with the far right in a bid to secure his re-election.

The party is now divided between the historic LR, which has launched a legal battle against Mr Ciotti to oust him from the party, and the new but small “Ciottist” movement.

The result is that many historic LR voters will likely plump for RN for the first time on Sunday, buoyed by the party’s relative success at shedding its anti-Semitic past and anger at Mr Macron’s apparent inability to improve their daily lives, said Carol, 44, a property broker who declined to give his surname.

“What I like about the RN is that they want to fight for the rights of the French people,” said Carol, who had always voted for the traditional right, as he pushed his toddler’s pram through Lyon city centre.

A demonstrator in Lyon holds a sign reading ‘All against the RN’ during a rally after the announcement of the results of the first round of parliamentary elections. AFP

“I know people say they have no experience governing, but those with experience did nothing to help us. So why not try the RN?”

Its president, 28-year-old Jordan Bardella, hopes for a majority of 289 MPs to govern. That possibility is now fading in part due to the historically high number of candidates stepping down on Tuesday to block the RN, which cut the number of three-way races from more than 300 to fewer than 100.

Yet the RN looks set to obtain the biggest number of seats in Parliament, paving the way for coalition talks after the second round of the ballot.

In the countryside surrounding Lyon, people are readying for an RN victory.

In one district, four candidates have made it to the second round. The RN, despite presenting a little-known candidate, came first. The outgoing right-wing MP, who came last, and her centrist opponent refused to back out to favour their socialist rival, who was second.

The centrist, Dominique Despras, and right-winger, Nathalie Serre, sparred publicly on social media, accusing each other of favouring their own re-election ahead of the country’s interest.

Eventually Mr Despras backed down but only after the 6pm deadline on Tuesday. He is now officially a candidate but his name will not appear on ballot papers.

In a Facebook post, he accused the right-wing candidate of making an “unreasonable and dangerous decision” by staying in the race. “Because we have maintained a republican and responsible spirit, we have decided to withdraw our candidacy,” he wrote.

The RN has seized on this type of political manoeuvring to portray its rivals as renouncing their own ideals to block the democratic process – an argument which has found wide resonance in the village of Lentilly, a thirty-minute drive from Lyon.

Church bells threatened

“The RN came first because people wanted to sanction Macron,” believes Alain, 75, who manages the only cafe in the centre of Lentilly, which is surrounded by fields.

Here, no one had heard of RN candidate Jonathan Guery, described by local media as a policeman, despite his score of 31 per cent of the vote, way ahead of the socialist candidate at 24 per cent.

Lentilly encompasses all the drivers of the RN vote as widely described by French sociologists: a rural setting on the outskirts of a big town, imbued with the prevailing perception that immigrants and their children are set on taking away the local population’s hard-earned privileges.

Alain highlighted new social housing projects and fears the village will be overwhelmed with arrivals of low-income families – most likely of North African origin – from Lyon.

“There’s a lady who lives by the church who has asked for the bells to stop ringing,” said Alain. “People feel they’re losing the village of their youth.”

Voters queue at a polling station to vote in the first round of the French parliamentary election in Lyon. AP

The racist tones of the RN manifesto, which includes reducing health and unemployment benefits to foreigners and restricting dual citizens' access to certain jobs, are in the back of people’s minds but not mentioned out loud, according to Alain.

“People don’t talk about it but I know it’s probably what they think deep down.”

Many argue that what drives people’s support for the RN is anger at the idea that foreigners unfairly benefit from the country's social safeguards.

“I dropped out of school at 14 years old to work in a factory and my retirement is too low for me to stop working now. I’m never allowed to make a mistake," said Alain. "Meanwhile, you see Romanians sending tonnes of money back home."

Despite the party's best efforts at clamping down on racist talk during the election, RN on Tuesday had to oust candidate Ludivine Daoudi after a picture resurfaced of her wearing a Nazi cap.

Her colleague Daniel Grenon then caused controversy by saying in an interview that dual citizens should not be in government, in a reference to former minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, who is Moroccan-French.

Mr Grenon said: “A binational person of Maghrebin origin has their place in France, but in high places I don’t think so. We need to protect France," daily newspaper Le Monde reported after accessing the original recording of the interview.

"Nobody can say they didn't know. Shame on those who normalised the far right," wrote Justice Minister Eric Dupont-Moretti on X.

For those horrified at the RN’s soaring popularity, arguments about foreigners' apparent easy access to state aid and jobs simply do not hold.

“I personally have friends who are foreigners and have faced an uphill battle to become French,” says Carole, 47, who works in a big pharmaceutical company in Lyon and who votes for the left.

"My in-laws fantasise about foreigners easily making €10,000 [$10,780] a month. It's nonsense."

Carole's in-laws have suggested that she, her husband and their three-year-old child sleep in their home outside Lyon on Sunday night, fearing riots in the city.

Carole scoffed at such fears, pointing at the quiet park she was sitting in, watching her son play.

“They think Lyon is Chicago and there’s going to be a civil war," she said. "If people want to vote RN, they’ll vote RN, whatever you say.”