Jean Lassalle made it to the second round of the legislative elections in the 4th constituency of Pyrénées-Atlantiques, but only just. What was the result for the leader of Résistons?
A mixed return for Jean Lassalle. The media-friendly politician from the Pyrénées-Atlantiques narrowly qualified for the second round of the legislative elections in the 4th constituency of the department. Indeed, the one who left the National Assembly in 2022 after twenty years of office came in third position with 18.05% of the votes cast and 12.91% of those registered, knowing that the threshold necessary to qualify is 12.5%. The second round therefore promises to be complicated against Inaki Echaniz, candidate of the New Popular Front, who largely dominated the vote with 38.01% of the votes cast, and Sylviane Lopez, of the RN, who won 25.62% of the votes. For France Blue, Jean Lassalle reacted to this score: “it’s a solid thrashing”. “In politics as elsewhere, comebacks are always difficult. I had a hard time taking it these last two years not being able to run due to illness. Now I did it, I came back and I’m calm, I did what I thought I had to do. And I’ll be there in the second round”, he added while his opponent Inaki Echaniz called on him to withdraw to block the RN.
The former elected official, on the other hand, was called to join the RN. Sylviane Lopez said she was aware of the weight of the leader of Résistons and assured that he “already has ideas that are somewhat similar to ours”. “I think that Jean Lassalle should perhaps rest now and then leave his place, or why not join us”, she declared. Jean Lassalle seems for the moment to be sticking to his own line of conduct.
What result for Jean Lassalle in the second round of the legislative elections?
Although he has never come third, Jean Lassalle has always obtained second place in the first round of the legislative elections before being elected in the second round. In 2017, he even obtained “only” 17.71% of the votes and yet won the election with 52.79% of the votes cast in the second round. In this election, he was facing an LREM candidate, Loïc Corrégé. He has also already faced a three-way race: in 2007, he won against a UMP candidate and a PS candidate. Will Jean Lassalle then manage to reverse the trend? A great deal of uncertainty remains in the transfer of votes from the 15.54% of the LR candidate Beñat Cachenaut. He personally assured that he would vote for Jean Lassalle: “I will vote for Jean Lassalle in a personal capacity because I have always been opposed to the extremes, as I have shown again in this campaign”, he declared as reported by South West.
Furthermore, according to an Ipsos Toluna poll for France 2 which anticipates the number of seats by party and not by political union, the RN could obtain between 204 and 244 seats and their allies from Ciott between 26 and 36 seats, followed by the NFP which would obtain 180 to 200 seats, including 58 to 72 LFI, 33 to 43 PS, 28 to 38 EELV, 6 to 12 PCF. The presidential camp and its allies would come third with between 60 and 90 seats, including 53 to 71 Renaissance, 13 to 19 MoDem, 4 to 10 Horizons. The Republicans and various right-wing parties can hope for between 41 and 61 seats. If these are trends observed at a specific time, they seem to show that NFP and RN candidates have a better chance of being elected than those from other parties.