LASSALE. Jean Lassalle comes out of the 2022 presidential election with more than 1.1 million votes. For his second participation, the Béarn elected official did much better than in 2017 but did not obtain a sufficient score to reimburse his campaign expenses.
At the end of the first round of the 2022 presidential election, the Résistons candidate finished with 3.1% of the vote and in 7th place out of 12 candidates. During the last presidential election, Jean Lassalle obtained only 1.21% of the vote. For this loud-mouthed character, always quick to defend rural territories and the voice of the “people” (we remember in particular his speeches on the sanitary pass or the yellow vests), the tour of France by bus carried out during this campaign will not have been in vain, allowing it to exceed 1.1 million supporters. At the end of his speech on the evening of Sunday April 10, the candidate indicated that he would not give voting instructions for the second round of the presidential election.
It is under a thunder of “Bravo” and “more than 3!” that the candidate Jean Lassalle began his speech on Sunday April 10 in the evening, meeting with his supporters in a Parisian restaurant when the results of the first round were announced. In a relaxed context, the jokes flowing, he wanted to thank all those who “trusted” him in this “difficult election”. He praised the “resistance” of its members, the “smiling, radiant” expression of France which wants to be “reborn”. “I will not forget these magnificent days lived” alongside an “authentic, French-style team”, he was moved. “What did we have fun with this bus!” he launched, in reference to his tour of the country “to meet the French” during the campaign. He said he has been “listening” to those who think they have “no place” in the “public expression” of the country. For him, taking this bus was “necessary” since he “could not speak in the media”.
“We cannot continue to Americanize ourselves as we do”, he continued, believing that “the great fortunes” have “nothing to do” at the head of the major French media, but also that the ” polling institutes” deserve to be dissolved as soon as possible. He then addressed the “manipulation”, the “instrumentalization” and the “shaping of the final” of the second round by the “great leaders”, a rhetoric that we know well. On the other hand, he thanked the mayors of France who did “no mania” and who immediately “granted him the sponsorships”. “The mayors still believe in our magnificent country”, he enthused, before speaking of his project of “reconstruction” of France “of the territories”, but also of the priorities that were found in his program, such as investment in research, renewable energy and health, but also the overhaul of institutions.
“We will vote blank until the people fully regain their power, the one that is due to them”, the time that “we carry out the transformations that should be carried out”. In a press release on April 11, he explained that in his eyes there was “nothing more shocking than to consider the French as incapable of choosing for themselves”. “As if, in this area, again, we were not free and responsible citizens in our own right”, he wrote.; “I leave to those who trusted me their free choice for Sunday April 24”, specifying that he would “vote blank”. Thus, for Jean Lassalle, leaving the choice to his voters is more a matter of his ethics and his belief in the virtues of the blank vote than of a desire to direct them towards one or other of the candidates.
Only 4 parties in the running for the first round of the election obtained a result of more than 5% of the votes allowing them to obtain an almost complete reimbursement of their campaign expenses. The 8 other candidates thus find themselves in financial difficulty, in particular the traditional parties the PS and LR which have invested heavily in this campaign, but also EELV. This is why, on Monday April 11, Jean Lassalle announced on his twitter account : “Faced with the financial difficulties of the PS, LR and EELV, Résistons! has decided to make an equivalent donation to each of them in order to respect the principle of equality which is so dear to me and which has prevailed throughout this campaign”. Before adding, not without irony, “We often need someone smaller than ourselves”, in particular in reference to her higher score than the socialist candidate Anne Hidalgo who obtained only 1.7% of the vote. and the calls for donations made by Yannick Jadot and Valérie Pécresse during their speeches on the evening of April 10.