ALLEX, France — With its ancient stone villages nestled among lavender fields, mountain grazing cows and goats, and miles of vineyards, the Drôme region resembles a miniature France.
Steeped in tradition and seemingly averse to change, the sprawling southeastern district, tucked between Lyon and Marseille, has been the political realm of France’s centre-right for the past two decades.
But as the first round of the French two-step parliamentary election approaches on Sunday, the long-ruled left is seeing a rare opening to challenge President Emmanuel Macron, following his convincing reelection victory in April over his far-right challenger Marine Le Pen.
Largely absent from the presidential campaign, France’s contrarian left-wing parties have forged an alliance aimed at making themselves relevant again, preventing Mr Macron from gaining a majority in parliament and complicating his new five-year term.
At least that is the hope of politicians like Marie Pochon, the local left-wing candidate in the Drôme’s third constituency, where left-wing parties beat Macron’s by more than 10 percentage points in the presidential election.
On a recent stop in Allex, a small village of cream-colored stone houses in the eastern part of the Drôme, Mrs. Pochon was received with an enthusiasm that had long eluded the left in this part of France.
“Keep it up, we’re all behind you!” Maud Dugrand, an Allex resident, told Mrs Pochon as she rang the bell in a narrow street and handed out leaflets, which one resident, reading a newspaper on his patio, refused, saying he was already convinced by her.
“Our constituency is a laboratory,” said Pascale Rochas, a local socialist candidate in the 2017 parliamentary election who has now backed Ms Pochon’s candidacy. “If we can win here, we can win elsewhere.”
The Drôme is indeed a snapshot of little France and gives the local elections the appearance of a national competition. Until recently, the region was typical of the left’s disarray at the national level, with each side refusing to cooperate and instead clinging to its strongholds.
Emmanuel Macron’s Second Term as President of France
With the re-election of Emmanuel Macron, French voters preferred his promise of stability to the temptation of an extremist pendulum.
The socialists and communists have long dominated the southern Provençal villages, while the Greens and the far-left have competed for the more economically endangered farmland in the north.
But the new left-wing alliance — forged under the leadership of the old left-wing fervent Jean-Luc Mélenchon — is now trying to bridge those gaps by uniting Mélenchon’s own France Unbowed Party with the Socialists, Communists and Greens.
Mr Mélenchon, who came third in April’s presidential election, has portrayed the parliamentary elections as a “third round” presidential election. He has called on voters to metaphorically “elect” him as prime minister (the position is appointed by the president) by giving the coalition a majority in the National Assembly, the lower and most powerful house of parliament.
The alliance allowed the left to avoid competing candidatures and instead field a single candidate in nearly all of France’s 577 constituencies, automatically increasing its chances of winning seats in parliament.
Stewart Chau, a political analyst with the polling agency Viavoice, said the alliance was “the only dynamic in the current political landscape.”
Since her loss in the presidential election, Ms Le Pen’s National Rally party has failed to spark public debate around her favorite themes of economic uncertainty, immigration and crime, and the two-round voting system, which is generally preferred. gives to more moderate candidates, will most likely lead to the far right gaining only a few dozen seats in parliament.
Mr Chau said Mr Mélenchon had created a new “center of gravity” for the French left and that he had “succeeded in pushing through the idea that the game was not played yet”, despite Mr Macron’s re-election.
Opinion polls are currently giving the left-wing coalition — called Nouvelle Union Populaire écologique et sociale, better known by its acronym NUPES — a chance to win 160 to 230 seats in the National Assembly with 577 seats.
That could be enough to break Macron’s political agenda in parliament and disrupt his second term as president, though it’s far from certain.
Ms. Pochon, 32, an environmentalist, perhaps best embodies the outreach of the left-wing alliance, even in areas that the center-right has long controlled.
Economic and social issues vary widely along the roads that run through the third constituency of the Drôme. Each of the 238 municipalities, populated by only a few thousand people, faces specific challenges.
Economic uncertainty, a shortage of doctors and a lack of public transport are the main concerns in the northern farmlands of the district, while Provençal villages in the south are more concerned about lavender production, a key feature of the local economy that is increasing. threatened by rising temperatures.
To address the variety of issues, Ms. Pochon has taken advantage of the alliance’s comprehensive platform, which includes raising the monthly minimum wage to $1,500, or about $1,600; kickstart ecological transition with major investments in green energy; reintroduction of small train lines; and end medical deserts.
“We are witnessing the emergence of a rural environmental movement, of a new kind of left in these areas,” Ms Pochon said in an interview.
It also helped that local left-wing forces have teamed up in the election, ending divisions that Ms Rochas said had been a “heartache.”
In the Drôme, Macron supporters recognized the challenge they face. “NUPES worries us a bit because they are very present on the ground,” said Maurice Mérabet, handing out leaflets at an open-air market for Célia de Lavergne, the current legislator of the constituency and a member of Mr Macron’s party, La République. And Marche.
Ms de Lavergne, who is running for reelection and campaigning in Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, a small town in the south of the Drôme, said it would be “an exciting race” between her and Ms Pochon.
She attacked the left-wing alliance for its economic platform, saying it was unrealistic and rejecting the coalition’s plans to phase out nuclear dependence.
Instead, she highlighted how she has been fighting to get an additional reactor for the local nuclear power plant, as part of Mr Macron’s ambitious plans to build 14 new-generation reactors.
“Being annuclear is a total deviance,” said Jean-Paul Sagnard, 72, a retiree, as he made his way through the market’s vegetable stalls. He added that Mr Macron’s platform was “the platform that makes the most sense economically.”
Criticism of Mr Mélenchon’s fiery personality is also frequent, even among left-wing supporters.
Maurice Feschet, a lavender producer, said that although he was set to vote for the left-wing alliance on Sunday, Mr Mélenchon’s calls to elect him as prime minister had left him indifferent.
“I don’t think he has what it takes to lead the country,” Mr. Feschet said, in the middle of a lavender field.
In the narrow streets of the village of Allex, Mrs. Dugrand, Mrs. Pochon’s supporter, also told the candidate that Mr. Mélenchon is “not my cup of tea”. But she couldn’t hide her excitement at the prospect of the left becoming the main opposition party to Mr Macron after five years of being virtually voiceless.
“We have only one wish, for something to happen,” she said.