Hayange, the deindustrialized generation that voted for Le Pen

“The inhabitants of this region, betrayed By both left and right politicians. Industrial furnaces were closed despite François Hollande’s promise to do the opposite,” he told El Periódico de Catalunya, a newspaper of the same group, Prensa Ibérica. Fabien EngelmanThe 42-year-old mayor of Hayange is one of almost twenty cities – all small or medium-sized except Perpignan – administered by the National Regrouping (far-right). In fact, the election of this ultra mayor in 2014, followed by a comfortable re-election in the municipal elections in March 2020, marked by covid-19 and marked by overwhelming abstention, was marked by the closure of the Arcelor Mittal plant, the country’s main steel producer. world headquartered in Luxembourg.

The fateful end of Turkey’s steel industries Hayange and Florange He was one of the ‘feuilletons’ that diminished Hollande’s authority. In the middle of the 2012 presidential campaign, he visited his striking workers and convinced them that he would do everything possible to avoid the shutdown. The episode pointed to consciences to the point where it inspired the series’‘Black Baron’. Finally, the socialist president, who was later counted as the main economic advisor With a certain Emmanuel Macron, he signed a deal with the multinational at the end of that year. This did not allow any workers to be fired, but documented that factories stopped working. According to CGT, about 1,000 jobs were lost in Lorraine’s historic steel belt.

Deindustrialization, favorable terrain for Le Pen

“The closure of Arcelor Mittal bakeries in 2012 represented the final chapter in a busy process. deindustrialization process It started with the oil crisis in the mid-1970s,” explains Pascal Raggi, professor of Contemporary History at the University of Lorraine. According to this historian, “communists and socialists paid the price for the political repercussions of this phenomenon.”

Many of the residents have “experienced a social setback. The percentage of the population below the poverty line in Hayange is 20%. In active youth, it exceeds 30%. All this creates a fertile ground for voting for Le Pen,” recalls political scientist Etienne Criqui, who is well acquainted with this steel and mining belt.

The ultranationalist candidate won over 38 percent of the vote in this town in the first round on April 10. “It has grown from 27% in 2012 to almost 39% over the last ten years,” Criqui emphasizes. Judging the votes of polemicist Eric Zemmour, the far right has reached 45 percent in a city where residents less and less conceal their sympathy for lepenist xenophobia. Le Pen, which is second with 23% across the country, top rated in all departments (provinces) north of france Except for Alsace, which is a historically moderate region. In a way, this northern belt, severely shaken by deindustrialization, represents its French counterpart. Rust BeltThe key to Donald Trump’s victory in 2016.

“I’m not racist, but I’m against this much help”

“I don’t want foreigners in France, I don’t particularly like Arabs – a derogatory word to refer to French people of North African descent – who don’t stop messing around by stealing and selling drugs -” , 63, working as a plumber. after a beer in a bar Hayange’s lethargic center.

“I’m sick of politicians. We’ve tried all kinds of left and right… Why don’t we try with Le Pen now?” says Lydiane, 62, a retired florist. a lot of help to all these people who did nothing and spends the day on the couch”, argues this daughter of Italian immigrants. “Is it normal to only get 822 euro pension after 45 years of work?”

Good Friday – a day that’s the only public holiday in this part of the northeast because of Concordat – and Hayange streets are almost deserted. While once known for its frenzied industrial activity, it is now a bedroom town soulless. “It used to be a very wealthy region, Lorraine Texas. We had a hospital, a police station, and even a courthouse in Hayange. While 77-year-old Catherine drinks coffee with a few friends on the terrace between a neo-Renaissance church and the Town Hall, 77-year-old Catherine, who stands out only with her ocher facade, cries. tower with a clock in the form of a factory.

“Our healthcare is declining and the nearby hospital of Thionville, a town of 40,000, is saturated,” Engelmann reproduces Le Pen’s usual talk on the subject. disappearance of public services In “peripheral France”, the Gallic equivalent of “empty Spain”. A former member of the CGT and the Trotskyist left, this mayor likes to brag that “the RN was the first workers’ party in France”.

Despite this, he ruled the city as if he were a typical man. conservative mayorfocuses on keeping the streets clean and safe. “He looked at the city as if it were his keeper, but lacked a social vision. It abolished 70 positions for municipal workers and also applied to private companies to transfer some of its public services”, criticizes Gilles Wobedo, a militant of the insurgent left who was on the opposition list in previous municipal lists. Some of the most antisocial measures of this ultra Town Hall, decree against beggars on the street or cutting off the electricity and water to Sécours Populaire, a communist-inspired humanitarian organization. “I tell the volunteers of charities not to get involved in politics,” admits Engelmann.

Divided opinions among Mélenchon voters

“I spent several years without setting foot in Hayange after he was elected in 2014,” says 59-year-old Antonio Lorio of a mayor who was hated by some but also favored by many of his neighbors, including those who did not support the far-right. in national elections. After voting in the first round for the insurgent Jean-Luc Mélenchon—the second most-supported party in the city with 20.9%, this militant Communist Party He has no doubt that he will bet on the president who leaves in a second.