France’s ‘Somewheres’ want revenge

00:00 06:10

Gavin Mortimer has narrated this article for you to listen to.

The builder who has been working on my house in Burgundy will be voting for Marine Le Pen’s National Rally on Sunday in the first round of the French parliamentary election. So will the electrician. I haven’t asked the plumber, but I suspect I know where his vote will go, given that his assistant is voting for Le Pen. My neighbour, a farmer, is voting Le Pen, as is a teacher acquaintance. The local policeman is also voting Le Pen.

‘What do I think of Macron?’ retorted the electrician. ‘Put it this way, he’s not my friend’

It’s not that surprising in this neck of the woods. The National Rally romped to victory in the Yonne department in the recent European elections, winning 41.4 per cent of the vote. Next best was Valerie Hayer, Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party candidate, who came away with a modest 12.5 per cent.

The Yonne was one of 22 (out of a total of 101) departments in which the National Rally broke the 40 per cent threshold. In all, they triumphed in a staggering 96 departments. Of the five departments that resisted Le Pen and her troops, one was Paris, three were its suburbs and the fifth was the Caribbean island of Martinique.

Paris voted for Raphaël Glucksmann’s Socialists; Hauts-de-Seine, the affluent suburbs, stayed loyal to Macron. Paris is the richest of France’s 101 departments, with an average annual salary of €51,228. Hauts-de-Seine is the second, with €47,877. The Yonne department is 69th on the rich list, with €25,095.

My builder is self-employed and his daily rate is €150. He normally works four days a week. He needs a day off midweek because he’s in his late fifties and suffering from a bad shoulder. He did his national service in the parachute regiment and loved it, like he loves his country.