Moselle: fourteen candidates compete in indifference of voters

Between the political fragmentation caused by the dissidents and the disinterest of the legislative election in a territory undermined by abstention, the campaign in the 3ᵉ district of the Moselle struggles to mobilize voters.

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“He will rain, or not?” A few minutes from the arrival of François Hollande on the evening of Wednesday June 8, Eric Gulino, the socialist mayor of the municipalities of Ogy, Montoy and Flanville (Moselle), scrutinizes The sky and its threatening clouds, the face twisted by a grimace. The former President of the Republic, unfavorably known to the organizers of outdoor events, sets foot in Montoy accompanied by an unpleasant driver. “Finally, it does not rain that much”, jokes the former head of state, shaking the hand of the mayor of the villages which bring together 1,800 inhabitants of them. The last socialist president of the Republic is in this twin village of Oradour-sur-Glane (Haute-Vienne) to participate in the commemoration ceremony of the five Montévillois victims of Nazi barbarism on June 10, 1944.

But the presence of François Hollande does not stop there. He is also in Moselle to support those who are called here the “three musketeers”, understand the socialist dissidents of the Party Agreement with the new Ecological and Social Popular Union (Nuts) among the nine districts that the Department involves.

Eric Gulino, Dissident PS candidate, during the visit of François Hollande, at Ogy-Montoy-Franville, June 8, 2022. Cyril Bitton/Diverge for “Le Monde”

“There is Certain constituencies where the socialists are much better placed to win the left, estimates Mr. Hollande around the world. The Socialist Party is established throughout the national territory with local elected officials and has only 50 constituencies out of 577 in the agreement. “Here, in the 3 e district of the Moselle, composed of two thirds of the city of Metz and around sixty villages, the socialist” musketeer “is called Eric Gulino. In a constituency Who oscillates between Emmanuel Macron, Marine Le Pen and, to a lesser extent Jean-Luc Mélenchon, he knows that socialist voices will be weak. For the thirteen other candidates, the biggest challenge is to mobilize voters, so much the legislative elections leave them indifferent.

“The main challenge is to convince that the legislative elections are more important than the presidential election, because it is not the president but the National Assembly who votes the law”, advises François Hollande. In 2017, 51 % of them did not go to the ballot box in the first round of the legislative elections, and 57 % had done the same in the second. In the cantons of the constituency, the departmental elections had mobilized only 30 % of the voters. “I am tired by this disinterest of voters, deplores Eric Gulino. My opponent is abstention, which rots the debate.”

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