the nice media stunt of LMR
Is all publicity good to take? The answer is beyond doubt for the Mouvement de la Ruralité (LMR, formerly Hunting, Fishing, Nature and Traditions), which has decided to opt for a particular strategy: to present namesakes to the leading candidates of certain constituencies, for the 2022 legislative elections. Thus, in the 9and constituency of Paris, Sandrine Rousseau (Nupes) faces… Sandrine Rousseau (LMR). And in Seine-et-Marne, Patricia Lemoine (LREM) faces Jacques Lemoine (LMR). In both cases, the “known” candidates are opposed to the hunt.
“We make it fun”
“It’s a kind of coincidence of homonymy that we did not want to let pass, admits Yannick Villardier, LMR manager for Ile-de-France, to Opinion. Our Sandrine Rousseau is not Parisian, but these elections allow applications from places in other regions. We have fun pitting someone who is attached to the rural world against someone who is very far from it. »
The two women certainly have divergent paths and ideas. Sandrine Rousseau (LMR) lives in Normandy and is a childcare assistant. Sandrine Rousseau (Nupes) is an economist and lives between Lille (where she is a teacher-researcher at the university) and Paris. The Normande has little experience in politics, the Northerner was elected in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais in 2010 and is one of the outstanding personalities of ecology and feminism. Above all, one is for hunting, the other against.
The “fatigue” of Sandrine Rousseau
This particular application “fatigue” Sandrine Rousseau (Nupes). In a tweet, the economist quoted political scientist Tatiana Stanovaya: “The practice of homonyms is a softer method than falsifications or the elimination of undesirable candidates”. Thus making a parallel with Russia, where the method is common.
Indeed, the game of homonyms means that voters can easily choose the wrong ballot and vote for a competitor. “In Russia, ”candidates” take the name of an opponent to withdraw votes from him”, underlines the tweet of Sandrine Rousseau (Nupes).
To avoid possible confusion between Rousseau-Rousseau and Lemoine-Lemoine, the acronym LMR-CNPT will be indicated on the ballots of the candidates concerned.
In any case, LMR will have succeeded in its media stunt. Because these homonymous candidacies are above all a good way to make people talk about yourself when you are a minority party: LMR has three mayors (Landes-sur-Ajon, Hamel, Vendargues), 1 departmental councilor (out of 4058 in France) and 4 councilors regional (out of 1758).