As the results of the French local elections sink in, it is useful to reflect on the shifting moral boundaries in public debate that characterised the campaign. In the weeks leading up to the first round of voting on 15 March, criticism directed at the radical-left party La France Insoumise (LFI) and its confrontational leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, reached new levels of intensity. Mélenchon had become, it seemed, the undisputed “bad guy” of French political life.
Yet, for the first time in its history, the radical left now has control of several cities – including Saint-Denis, the second-largest municipality in the Paris region and after Sunday’s run-offs, Roubaix, one of France’s poorest cities, previously controlled by the right.
