Overseas France, the ideal postcard for presidential candidates

Several postulants at the Elysee Palace, including Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Marine Le Pen, have returned from several days of campaigning overseas. The opportunity for them to garner support and sponsorship, but also to gain ground on the controversies that agitate the metropolis.

Clichés abound from overseas. Postcard style, Fabien Roussel (PCF) prepares a rougail darling in Reunion, with sausages and chicken. Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI) strolls through a Martinican market, while Marine Le Pen (RN) appears with her neck buried under necklaces of flowers, alongside young Mahorais. These images, all published on Instagram, offer a break in the sun in the heart of a grayish winter as much as they remind us that a presidential election takes place in just over three months. The three candidates have jumped on the plane these days heading overseas. The timing is right: the campaign is not in full swing (not yet), it will not kick off until January. In the meantime, the contenders for the supreme position can therefore afford a few days away from the metropolis, far from the debates and controversies which agitate the hexagon. Overseas are also an important source of voters, since 2.2 million people live there. Finally, these excursions are also welcome for those who are struggling to collect their 500 sponsorships. “It is easier to negotiate a signature with an elected official face-to-face. It’s important to make the trip ”, observe near Release political scientist and researcher at Cevipof, Christiane Rafidinarivo.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, candidate of rebellious France, was the first to open the ball. On December 14, his plane landed in Guadeloupe. His campaign director Manuel Bompard and the LFI deputy of Val-de-Marne Mathilde Panot are accompanying him. The overseas territories are key for Mélenchon: in 2017, he achieved one of his best scores. In Martinique (27.3%), Guyana (24.7%) and Reunion (24.5%), the rebellious candidate came first in the first round. During his meetings, he recalled that the overseas territories were not “Ultra-peripheral” but “Magnifying glasses” on broader issues. In recent weeks, the West Indies in particular have seen major protest movements: against the health pass and the vaccination obligation but also, and above all, against the high cost of living and the very high unemployment rate. Themes on which Jean-Luc Mélenchon is rather comfortable.

The “PCF is back”

The trip overseas is for him the opportunity to validate some of his theses. Starting with this idea of ​​creolization, which comes from the Martinican thinker Edouard Glissant. “I’m bored if I don’t put theoretical objects on the table. Creolization, I blame myself for not having thought about it sooner ”, explained the leader of the rebels. On the program of his trip: in Martinique, a tribute to Aimé Césaire, on whose tomb Jean-Luc Mélenchon laid a wreath; in Guadeloupe, “the steps of the slaves”, which Mélenchon climbed while recalling the “need” to teach the history of slavery. “We believe that in the end, if the sufferings and humiliations cannot in any way of course be forgotten, the main lesson is that of liberation”, did he declare.

As for Covid-19, and while the number of contaminations is skyrocketing because of the omicron variant, Mélenchon has maintained in the West Indies his opposition to the health pass and the vaccination obligation. A way of brushing in the direction of the hair a population more reluctant to be bitten. On TF1 Saturday, the former socialist senator addressed the Prime Minister: “I tell Mr. Castex that it is wrong to focus everything on the issue of vaccination. It is a mistake to think only of brutal methods to try to solve a problem. ” Mathilde Panot announced, from Martinique, that rebellious France will use its parliamentary niche scheduled for January 13 to “Present a text that calls for an end to the exceptional health regime, which wants to remove full health power from Emmanuel Macron, and which will put an end to the health pass and the vaccination pass”. A position criticized, including on the left, for its demagoguery.

Another candidate currently thousands of kilometers from the metropolis: Fabien Roussel who, with the colors of the French Communist Party (PCF), arrived Thursday in Reunion. Its mission: to remind voters that the “PCF is back”, after fifteen years of absence in the presidential election. With business leaders, union representatives, farmers and fishermen, Roussel spoke about employment, purchasing power, poor housing and education. He took the opportunity to pay tribute to Paul Vergès, founder of the Reunion Communist Party, and to celebrate, like Mélenchon, the abolition of slavery, the anniversary of which falls on December 20 in Reunion. Fabien Roussel thus continues his tour of the overseas territories. At the end of November, he visited Guyana and Guadeloupe.

At the other end of the political spectrum, Marine Le Pen was visiting Mayotte last weekend. Operation seduction in the streets of Mamoudzou, where the far-right candidate has chained selfies with the inhabitants, adorned with numerous necklaces of flowers on the forehead and around the neck. With, in all his speeches, the attempt to surf on the feeling of abandonment that torments overseas populations. “I have immense affection for the overseas territories and I refuse to admit the disinterest of the French leaders in you”, said Marine Le Pen. However, has overseas become more permeable to far-right ideas than the metropolis? “No”, answers political scientist Christiane Rafidinarivo: “Mayotte is in such a situation of insecurity and problems linked to illegal immigration, that the National Rally is undoubtedly more anchored than elsewhere.” The researcher insists, however, on the extreme “volatility” of the electorate. “Historically, overseas voting is marked on the left, but nothing is won this time around. The game is much more open. Hence the interest for candidates to retain their electorate right down to the home stretch. ” Marine Le Pen and Fabien Roussel are back on their way back to the metropolis on Tuesday.