Europe breathed a sigh of relief this weekend as the French far-right party National Rally (RN) came third in national elections. In one secluded French village presided over by a Belgian Mayor, RN garnered just 14 votes in the second round.
Saint-André-Lachamp, nestled away in the southern French countryside, somewhere between Lyon and Montpellier, is just a few hours away from the coast. Since 2014, the village has boasted of a Belgian-born mayor, Luc Parmentier, who today remains a proud and active member of the idyllic countryside community.
His village voted for the left-wing bloc the New Popular Front (NFP) on Sunday, in one of the most significant ballots in contemporary French history. The NFP is a coalition of left-wing parties ranging from soft socialists to hardline anti-capitalists and was formed to counter the rise of the far-right.
"In my small commune, this is not very surprising because we know each other and we knew that RN would make little gains," Parmentier told The Brussels Times. "We did better than I thought we would. So that is a source of satisfaction for me."
Parmentier is descended from a Belgian Resistance member, Isidore Parmentier. During the Second World War, his activities were discovered by the Nazis and he was sent to Mauthausen concentration camp, where he died.
"Every year, my dad – who is now deceased – used to go and pay his respects at the camp," said Parmentier. "This is something I am planning to do and it is much more important to me now [that the far-right is on the rise again]."
'Lack of understanding'
Parmentier expressed relief at the national result but was "very disappointed" that RN prevailed in Ardèche, the district to which Saint-André-Lachamp belongs. In addition, while only seven locals voted for RN in the first round of voting, this figure rose to 14 in the second.
"People are now openly declaring that they voted for RN, and often they don't really know why. I think there is a lack of understanding." He hopes French people voted for the far-right out of anger with Macron's "centrist" Renaissance party rather than adhering to its extremist rhetoric.
Credit: Luc Parmentier
Parmentier left Belgium at age 27. A descendant of immigrants (who came from a now-Italian area of the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia), he feels "profoundly" Belgian but loves his life in France and became a French citizen in 2008, making him a dual national: he jokes that RN wants to keep these citizens out of official posts but "that doesn't include mayors".
Saint-André-Lachamp has its fair share of néoruraux, people like Parmentier who decided to decamp to the countryside. The Mayor describes his community as a diverse, sociable hub where locals often come together for agricultural and artisanal collaboration.
"It is a beautiful region," he says with pride. "You are welcome to pass by and say hello any time!"
