French working-class candidates beat President Macron’s party representatives

Surprising winners who beat the odds against ministers and long-time politicians

Shweta Desai |20.06.2022


PARIS

A chambermaid, a policeman, a school teacher, and a school principal are some of the surprising winners from the working class who beat the odds against President Emmanuel Macron’s party candidates to win the legislative elections and secure a seat in the French parliament.

Rachel Keke, 48, a former cleaning lady at a Paris hotel beat Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu from Macron’s Ensemble alliance to win the second round of the legislative elections.

Keke stepped into politics as a candidate for the newly formed left party coalition NUPES after successfully heading a nearly two-year strike against Accor group’s Ibis Batignolles hotel in Paris demanding higher wages for the service staff.

“The National Assembly will tremble," Keke exclaimed on Twitter following the announcement of the result. A native of Cote d'Ivoire, Keke became a naturalized citizen in 2015. She will represent the constituency of Val-de-Marne located in the Ile-de-France region at the National Assembly.

According to the official results, Macron’s Ensemble (Together) alliance won 245 seats, left-wing political coalition NUPES (New Ecological and Social Popular Union) got 131 seats, and far-right Marine Le Pen’s National Rally obtained 89 seats.

Two other NUPES candidates, Eva Sas in Paris and Jerome Guedj in Essone defeated Macron’s party-established politicians.

With 54.04% of the votes, Sas took down Laetitia Avia, a spokesperson for the 'Republic on the Move' party. Guedj received 53.36% of votes as he beat Environment Minister Amelie de Montchalin who got 47% of the vote.

Following their defeat, Maracineanu and Montchalin will both resign from Macron’s government.

School principal Leo Walter, Melanie Thomin, 38, a French school teacher both representing NUPES also won the elections against veteran politicians. Walter scored 51.49% of the vote against 48.51% former Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, to win the seat from Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. Thomin, a young social activist, will become a member of parliament from Finistere, in Brest city of western Brittany. She beat Richard Ferrand, president of the National Assembly, by just over 500 votes, France Blue reported.

“We are going to create the alternative on the left after five years of liberal politics,” she wrote on her website.

A former policeman, 33-year-old Romain Baubry, from the far-right party National Rally won the seat in Bouches-du-Rhone, after obtaining 53.85% of the vote against 46.15% vote for Macron’s candidate Marie-Laurence Anzalone.

Premier Elisabeth Borne, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, disability, and solidarity minister Damien Abad, left party leader Jean Luc Melenchon and far-right leader le Pen are some of the popular French politicians who retained their seats.