The French in Belgium are mobilizing this Sunday to block Marine Le Pen: “a horror scenario that we do not want to see happen”
With 28% of the votes belgians, the radical left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon had made a remarkable score in the first round. He called on his voters not to give Madame Le Pen a single vote, without telling them they were interested in voter Macron. “The closer we got to this second round, the more certain voters who wanted to vote blank, or even vote Marine Le Pen, deflated. They finally chose to vote not in favor of Emmanuel Macron, but a vote backwards, a vote against Le Pen”explains the vice-president of the French in Belgium – ADFE.
These competent voters correct their vote in some way during the third round, the legislative elections of June. They should make it possible to better enable the political orientation of the French in Belgium: “when we add up the total of all leftrebels, ecologists, communists, socialists, etc., we arrive at a total by 42-43%. Total macronistit’s 44%. In the constituency of the French in Belgium, the FN is ultimately very little present”.
The defense of Europe
Many French people have settled in Brussels for professional reasons linked to the European institutions. Marine Le Pen does not hide her mistrust, even her contempt, for these institutions, while Emmanuel Macron makes France’s European commitment the bedrock of his policy. It is therefore not surprising that Emmanuel Macron won 40% of the votes in the first round, for less than 6% for Marine Le Pen, almost on a par with the other far-right candidate, Eric Zemmour. .
“The National Rally vote is still concentrated on the border strip, Tournai, Mouscron, Charleroi”points out Bruno Jean-Etienne, who sees “a vote of older people, or those with less financial means, or people who work in France and who are more exposed to the French reality compared to people who live in Brussels or in Flanders and who are more integrated in Belgium”.
Zemmour, from Antwerp to Waterloo
As for the vote in favor of Eric Zemmour, he was better represented in cities like Brussels, Waterloo or Antwerp. “The Zemmour vote clearly took over the Fillon vote (the right-wing candidate who won 22% of the vote in 2017). It is rather an urban vote, of people well integrated socially and financially”analyzes Bruno Jean-Etienne.
This Sunday, Marine Le Pen should not exceed 20% of the votes in Belgium. She had collected 12% in 2017. If part of the French in Belgium are mobilizing, it is to rule out the scenario of seeing Marine Le Pen enter the Élysée. The closing of borders within the European Union during the Covid crisis was an electric shock for a certain number of these French people. “The Covid made us realize how important the European Union was for us, French people from Belgiumsays Bruno Jean-Etienne. When there are concrete blocks at the border post, it is more difficult to exercise one’s citizenship.”
What if Marine Le Pen won?
If the far-right candidate wins, the vice-president of the French in Belgium – ADFE does not believe in a movement of French people who will seek refuge in Belgium.
He thinks on the contrary that it is in France that it will be necessary to mobilize. “SIf it did, there will be a cross-partisan movement to defend democracy, and ensure that Marine Le Pen can only govern in cohabitation. We will have to do everything to keep it as short a parenthesis as possible. It’s a horror scenario, a fictional scenario that we don’t at all want to have to realize.”