Legislative 2022: the Hauts-de-Seine slide from right to center

The Hauts-de-Seine have long been a stronghold of the right. A “blue suburb”, as represented by the geographer Tangui Pennec (1). From the legislative elections of 1988 to those of 2012, the balance of forces there remained stable: a dozen deputies from the right against a handful from the left, from the former Parisian “red belt”.

Five years ago, the election of Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée changed the situation: ten elected from the new presidential majority, one from the left (Elsa Faucillon, PCF) and two from the right. Since then, the latter two have joined the center: Thierry Solère (who does not represent himself) from 2017, Constance Le Grip this year.

→ ANALYSIS. Legislative 2022: big favorites, the macronists must mobilize the voters

Can the macronist coalition Together achieve the grand slam this time? “If we present candidates, it is not to testify, it is to win”explains Baï-Audrey Achidi, referent of the presidential party and herself a candidate.

Macronist sociology

In the first round of the presidential election, Emmanuel Macron obtained in Hauts-de-Seine his best score in mainland France: 37%, and 49% in Neuilly-sur-Seine where Constance Le Grip is a municipal councilor. His constituency is indeed symbolic, since it was that of the former mayor and President of the Republic Nicolas Sarkozy, who himself called on the right to “respond to Emmanuel Macron’s call for a rally”.

→ ANALYSIS. Legislative 2022: the new balances of macronism

The territory comes from the redistricting of Île-de-France in 1964-1968 “to stem the influence of the PCF by confining it to a single department, Seine-Saint-Denis”, showed Tangui Pennec. Its sociological evolution, with the process of gentrification, and economic, with the business district of La Défense, allowed the right to strengthen itself. However, this electorate of executives and liberal professions now forms the basis of Macronism. “There was no break but a change of generation and a gradual shift from the West of Paris, of which I am a pure product, towards a more moderate and liberal right yesterday, towards Emmanuel Macron today”, Constance Le Grip analysis.

Collective evolution and individual journey

From the collective evolution to the individual journey, the chosen one tells her “personal journey”. “It’s not a sudden turnaround, it’s the fruit of a slow maturation”she explains, identifying two stages: the executive’s response to the health crisis, “supported by all serious and responsible parties”then the position of LR between the two rounds of the presidential election: “I did not appreciate that my ex-political family no longer called for a vote against Marine Le Pen”advances the one who signed the transpartisan platform “Let’s vote for France in Europe, therefore against the far right”launched by the European Movement.

“It is a department that recognizes itself in our humanist, progressive and European values”, insists Baï-Audrey Achidi. Yet chaired from 1988 to 2004 by the sovereigntist Charles Pasqua, he had thus very largely voted in favor of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 (57%) then of the draft European Constitution in 2005 (62%).

This sociological and ideological compatibility with macronism led, in the municipal elections of 2020, several right-wing Altosecan mayors to expand their list to the majority. This is also what motivated Constance Le Grip to take the plunge, after the presidential election but before the legislative ones. “I have loyally supported Valérie Pécresse because I don’t think anyone breaks their word during their term of office, but for the term to come I could not continue to sit in a group where my liberal and European ideas are increasingly more marginalized”she concludes.