Pas-de-Calais's 11th constituency explained

11th constituency of the Pas-de-Calais
Member-Type:Deputy
Member:Marine Le Pen
Member-Party:RN
Department:Pas-de-Calais
Canton:Carvin, Courrières, Hénin-Beaumont, Leforest, Montigny-en-Gohelle, Rouvroy
Voters:89,833

The 11th constituency of the Pas-de-Calais is a French legislative constituency in the Pas-de-Calais département. It elects one député to the National Assembly. It has been represented by Marine Le Pen since 2017.

Description

For the 2012 French legislative election, the constituency attracted nationwide and international attention, as for the first time two candidates from the 2012 French presidential election stood as candidates there: Marine Le Pen of the National Front and Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the Left Front. Since 2007, Le Pen had been an opposition member of the Socialist Party-held town council in Hénin-Beaumont, the largest town in the constituency, while Mélenchon had argued that the Pas-de-Calais is "the birthplace of the workers' movement in France and should not be abandoned to the far-right". Opinion polls a month before the election suggested Le Pen would finish first in the first round, during which the political left was divided among several parties, but she would be beaten by Kemel or Mélenchon in the second round,[1] with the Left Front potentially taking the constituency from the locally embattled Socialists.[2] [3] [4] The Le Pen–Mélenchon duel attracted international media attention,[5] [6] [7] including for what it revealed of attitudes and expectations in an area of northern France hit hard by deindustrialisation and unemployment.[8] [9] [10] The Guardian wrote that, in that regard, "Mélenchon blames what he sees as pernicious free-market capitalism and bankers; Le Pen points the finger at immigrants and Europe".[11]

Previous office-holders

The seat had traditionally been held by the French Left until 2017. In 1988, Socialist candidate Noël Josèphe had been the only candidate in the second round, which he won unopposed. In 1993, the seat went to the French Communist Party member Rémy Auchedé; Marcel Cabiddu, winning unopposed in the second round, took it back for the Socialists in 1997; he was re-elected in 2002. Upon his death in 2004, the seat went to his suppléante Odette Duriez, who then won the 2007 election.[12]

ElectionMemberParty
1986Proportional representation – no election by constituency
1988Noël JosèphePS
1993Rémy AuchedéPCF
1997Marcel CabidduPS
2002
2004Odette Duriez
2007
2012Philippe Kemel
2017Marine Le PenFN
2022RN
2024

Election results

2024

CandidatePartyAllianceFirst roundSecond round
Votes%+/–Votes%+/–
Marine Le PenRN58.04+4.08
Samira LaalPSNFP26.05+2.62
Dorian LamyUDIEnsemble7.58style="color:red;"-4.74
Michel LanoyLRUDC4.75new
Geoffrey FournierREC1.44new
Dominique GaiLO1.40style="color:red;"-0.11
Gautier WeinmannDVG0.74
Votes100.00
Valid votes96.86style="color:red;"-1.17
Blank votes2.11+0.91
Null votes1.03+0.26
Turnout61.74+19.14
Abstentions38.26style="color:red;"-19.14
Registered voters
Source: https://www.resultats-elections.interieur.gouv.fr/legislatives2024/ensemble_geographique/32/62/6211/index.html
ResultRN HOLD

2022

|-| colspan="8" bgcolor="#E9E9E9"||- [13]

2017

Philippe Kemel of the Socialist Party, the incumbent deputy, was defeated in the first round. This left only Marine Le Pen, who finished second by less than half a percentage point in the 2012 election, and Anne Roquet of President Emmanuel Macron's recently created En Marche! party. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who came in third in the first round of the 2012 election, did not run, instead opting to run for a seat in Bouches-du-Rhône's 4th constituency. He was replaced by Jean-Pierre Carpentier of La France insoumise, a party founded by Mélenchon, and finished in fourth place.

CandidateLabelFirst roundSecond round
Votes%Votes%
Marine Le PenFN46.0258.60
Anne RoquetREM16.4341.40
Philippe KemelPS10.83
Jean-Pierre CarpentierFI9.97
Hervé PolyPCF5.00
Alexandrine PintusLR4.18
Marine TondelierECO3.55
Flore LatasteEXG1.09
Rachid FerahtiaECO1.05
Betty LeclercqDLF0.80
Aude LesageDIV0.49
Vincent CaflersEXD0.38
Jacques NikonoffDVG0.20
Votes100.00100.00
Valid votes98.0993.72
Blank votes1.153.85
Null votes0.762.43
Turnout46.6743.67
Abstentions53.3356.33
Registered voters
Source: Ministry of the Interior

2012

The Union for a Popular Movement did not present a candidate of its own, and instead endorsed as candidate a member of the Democratic Movement, Jean Urbaniak.[14] Urbaniak officially stood as an independent candidate of the centre-right.[15]

A debate was organised among the five main candidates (Kemel, Le Pen, Mélenchon, Tondelier, and Urbaniak) on the regional edition of the France 3 television channel.[16]

2012 French legislative election in Pas-de-Calais' 11th constituency
CandidatePartyFirst roundSecond round
Votes%Votes%
Marine Le PenFN42.26%49.89%
Philippe KemelPS23.72%50.11%
Jean-Luc MélenchonFG21.46%
Jean UrbaniakMoDem7.86%
Marine TondelierEELV1.60%
Michel VastDLR0.92%
Murielle Richet0.62%
Nathalie HubertLO0.62%
Séverine DuvalNPA0.33%
Michèle DessennePRCF0.18%
Mohamed BousnaneAEI0.16%
Rachida SahraouiPR0.15%
Pierre Rose0.11%
Daniel CucchiaroEcologist0.00%
Valid votes98.20%96.10%
Spoilt and null votes1.80%3.90%
Votes cast / turnout57.50%59.15%
Abstentions42.50%40.85%
Registered voters100.00%100.00%

2002

Two candidates stood under the Communist label, including former MP Rémy Auchedé (by now a dissident), but neither was endorsed by the French Communist Party.

1997

* Withdrew before the second round

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. http://www.liberation.fr/politiques/2012/05/20/legislatives-melenchon-battrait-le-pen-au-second-tour-selon-un-sondage_819963 "Législatives: Mélenchon battrait Le Pen, selon un sondage"
  2. http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/societe/le-duel-le-pen-melenchon-aura-bien-lieu-a-henin-beaumont_1113895.html "Le duel Le Pen - Mélenchon aura bien lieu à Hénin-Beaumont"
  3. http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2012/05/19/m-melenchon-nationalise-henin-beaumont_1704134_823448.html "M. Mélenchon "nationalise" Hénin-Beaumont"
  4. http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2012/05/19/a-henin-beaumont-le-parti-de-marine-le-pen-joue-la-carte-du-fn-de-proximite_1704138_823448.html "A Hénin-Beaumont, le parti de Marine Le Pen joue la carte du "FN de proximité""
  5. http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/wahl-in-frankreich-rechte-le-pen-tritt-gegen-linken-melenchon-an-a-836760.html "Wahlkampf in Frankreichs Norden: Duell der Populisten"
  6. http://www.taz.de/Parlamentswahl-in-Frankreich/!94704/ "Wahlkampf bei den Ch'tis"
  7. https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/frontnational102.html "Le Pen gegen Melenchon - Duell der Fallschirmspringer"
  8. http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15946587,00.html "Marine Le Pen challenged on home turf"
  9. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18367597 "France election: Le Pen and Melenchon duel for northern town"
  10. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/9309222/Marine-Le-Pen-and-Jean-Luc-Melenchon-face-off-again-for-French-votes.html "Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon face off again for French votes"
  11. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/may/26/marine-le-pen-france-left "France's champion of the left sends a challenge to Marine Le Pen"
  12. http://elections2007.lavoixdunord.fr/ma-circonscription/11e-circonscription-du-pas-de-calais/un-bastion-de-la-gauche-sur-des-sables-mouvants/ "Un bastion de la gauche sur des sables mouvants"
  13. Web site: Résultats des élections législatives 2022 dans le Pas-de-Calais . 2022-11-25 . Le Monde.fr . fr-FR.
  14. http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2012/05/20/sondage-melenchon-battrait-le-pen-a-henin-beaumont_1704293_823448.html "Sondage : Mélenchon battrait Le Pen à Hénin-Beaumont"
  15. http://nord-pas-de-calais.france3.fr/info/la-voix-est-libre-66292572.html "Débat législatives Hénin-Carvin 11ème circonscription Pas-de-Calais"
  16. http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2012/06/02/henin-beaumont-suivez-en-direct-le-debat-melenchon-le-pen_1711662_823448.html "Législatives : âpre débat entre Mélenchon et Le Pen"