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Some voters in the affluent Paris suburbs weigh in on Le Pen


NEUILLY-SUR-SEINE, France – Marine Le Pen she has never targeted the increasingly affluent area of ​​Paris when it comes to rallying voters, preferring instead to focus on poorer areas with large concentrations of upper-class voters. labor class. But there’s one land where she could get an unexpectedly high number of votes this Sunday: Neuilly-sur-Seine, an upscale city west of Paris, and one of the wealthiest places in the world. country.

Two weeks ago, in France’s first-round presidential vote, far-right candidates won an extraordinary quarter of the vote there. Much of this breakout was due to support for Eric Zemmourone emerging far-right candidate, who received only 7 percent of the vote nationally, but collected nearly 19 percent of the vote in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Mr. Zemmour’s appeal for the glory of rebirth for France – as well as his reputation as a prolific conservative writer and his support of pro-business policies that appealed to the city’s bourgeois residents.

But now that Mr. Zemmour is out of the race, some locals might vote for a candidate that once seemed alien to the city’s electoral sociology: Ms. Le Pen.

“We need to do everything we can to save France,” said Caroline Martin, 49, who was leaving a polling station near the New Renaissance Town Hall building. An ardent supporter of Zemmour, she said she voted for Ms Le Pen, although she regretted her lack of charisma and intellect.

“But if you really understand Mr. Zemmour’s message,” she said, pointing to his hardline stance on immigration, security and Islam, “you vote against Macron – you vote for Le Pen. ” She added that all her friends who support Mr Zemmour will vote as she did.

Polls show that about three-quarters of Zemmour’s supporters will vote for Le Pen nationally. Judging by the results of the first round, this means Ms Le Pen could get up to 20% of the vote in Neuilly-sur-Seine, double her share in the previous election. However, Mr. Macron’s support there will likely be lower than that of Ms. Le Pen. The French president obtained almost half of the votes in the city in the first round.

Mr. Zemmour has in the past placed his hopes on his ability Stunning for “the patriotic bourgeoisie and the working classes.” But he ended attract only bourgeois voters – who can now turn to Miss Le Pen.

Sitting on a bench across from City Hall, Jean-Louis Mathieu, who recently voted for Ms Le Pen, said he was not surprised by the rise of the far right in the affluent suburb. He attributed it not to the economic difficulties Le Pen campaigned for – “I don’t have a money problem,” he said – but to a growing sense that “the France we once had know, with values ​​and respect, does not exist anymore. ”

But some Zemmour supporters who approached the polling station at City Hall said they were still hesitant to vote for Ms Le Pen, a candidate they had never voted for before and which many consider ineligible. to rule.

Alain de Font Joyeuse, an 84-year-old retiree, said he likes Ms. Le Pen’s niece, Marion Maréchal, who recently attended Mr. Zemmour’s party and who he considers to be smarter than her aunt. Still undecided in the voting booth, he said he ultimately abstained.

Mr. de Font Joyeuse said: “Macron, I don’t trust him. “As for Le Pen, I don’t have a good feeling. She has no one to help her govern.”



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