Updated
The candidate of Resist! modestly helped the PS, EELV and LR candidates, below the 5% mark in the first round of the presidential election. A “way of doing good with humanity,” he told Paris Match.
“We often need someone smaller than ourselves.” Jean Lassalle, who took the lead of the “small candidates” for the presidential election by winning 3.1% of the vote in the first round, announced at the start of the week that he wanted to make an “equivalent donation” to the PS, EELV and LR. Their candidates having failed to collect more than 5% of the vote, these parties will not be able to benefit from reimbursement of their campaign expenses. From Sunday evening and the announcement of the results, Yannick Jadot invited his supporters to go to a donation platform. The next day, it was Valérie Pécresse who launched an appeal, specifying in passing that she had personally indebted herself to the tune of 5 million euros.
“Even one of my sons also offered to donate!”
Their appeal was heard by the deputy of the Pyrénées Atlantiques. The idea arose naturally within his campaign team: “One of us noticed that Valérie Pécresse, candidate LR, was appealing for donations […] we consulted each other and the idea of supporting it financially emerged”, he explains to Paris Match. He adds: “Even one of my sons also offered to make a donation! […] so obviously, we were able to make donations for everyone.”
While not revealing the sum, the candidate of Résistons! explained to us that he made a donation “on a human scale”: “It’s like a lifeline […] a small candidate must also show that he has heart”. For the Béarn elected official, it was above all a “gift of generosity”, a “way of doing good with humanity”. He finally revealed the amount on Thursday in a press release: “a check for 10 euros was sent” to LR Valérie Pécresse (4.78%), ecologist Yannick Jadot (4.63%) and socialist Anne Hidalgo ( 1.75%).
The candidate who had called the presidential campaign a “shitty campaign” and threatened to leave it, tripled his score compared to 2017. explains by his closeness to citizens: “I have always been out to meet others throughout my life. I have always fought against scandals and injustices […] To tell the truth, I did not fit into the mold of politics. The former shepherd who became mayor and then deputy thus proves “that we can very well stay close to people and listen to them”.
Jean Lassalle was able to gather fairly balanced profiles within his electorate. According to the Ifop-Fiducial “voting day” poll of April 10, 2022, the candidate has 74% of active voters within his electorate, up from 2017 (66.4%). Some activists present him as the candidate of rurality, since he brings together 88% of people from the Provinces among his voters. The voters of Jean Lassalle are also 54% to be without partisan sympathy, most having voted as much on the left as on the right in 2017. Jean Lassalle also knew how to unite the abstainers, since 7% of the French people who voted Jean Lassalle in 2022 had abstained in the 1st round of 2017. He found himself in the lead in more than 234 cities, notably in the South-West and in Corsica. An increase compared to 2017, where the candidate was present in more than 78 municipalities. Among them, of course, we find the town of Lourdios-Ichère, the stronghold of the deputy, where he won 65.49% of the vote.
Blank vote in the second round
For the second round, which opposes Emmanuel Macron to Marine Le Pen, Jean Lassalle did not give voting instructions but indicated that he would vote blank. He “completely trusts” his voters in their choice. As for the continuation and the legislative elections of June, he expresses some doubts. “I’m thinking about it, I haven’t made my decision,” he told Paris Match. In question ? Its low representativeness in the National Assembly: “I was questioned very little, I did not like that Parliament was used only as a registration chamber… With the defense councils put in place by Emmanuel Macron, I could not not to see my use in it.”