A year later, the balance of power has reversed. The 15th district of Paris, covering part of the 20th arrondissement, will see the “rebellious” Danielle Simonnet, invested by the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes), and the dissident socialist Lamia El Aaraje, clash on June 19, for the second round of legislative elections. In this constituency anchored on the left, Danielle Simonnet came well ahead of the first round with 47.11% of the vote, against 17.87% for Lamia El Aaraje.
The two women, both municipal councilors for the town hall of the 20th arrondissement, had already faced each other in June 2021 during a partial legislative election in the said constituency. Ms. El Aaraje won in the second round with 56.56% of the vote, against 43.44% for Ms. Simonnet. The election had however been canceled by the Constitutional Council in January 2022 due to the presence of an impostor among the candidates, depriving, in spite of herself, the socialist of her seat as a deputy.
Battle of “legitimacy”
At the beginning of May, after the signing of the Nupes agreement, when Lamia El Aaraje had already launched the campaign for his re-election for several weeks, LFI and the Socialist Party (PS) announced that the 20th constituency would be entrusted to Danielle Simonnet , figure and frame of LFI. “Danielle Simonnet ran in 2012 on the 6th district of Paris: she was beaten; she ran in 2017 on the 6th constituency: she was beaten. By electoral opportunity, she decided to run for the 15th constituency in 2021, mine, and I beat her. And it is to me that it is explained that I must withdraw? “, was indignant the socialist in an interview with the Sunday newspaper.
The only dissenting candidate who received the support of the PS – embarrassed by her non-investiture by the Nupes –, Lamia El Araaje considers “to be the legitimate candidate of the Union” in this constituency. The young elected Parisian, close to Anne Hidalgo, embodies, at 35, the rising generation of the PS. During her campaign, she gathered the support of the two former prime ministers Lionel Jospin and Bernard Cazeneuve, who came to support her in the field.
For her part, Danielle Simonnet invokes “the historic stake” of these legislative elections because of the agreement reached between the various left-wing forces, and considers that “any dissent plays into Emmanuel Macron’s game”. “Lamia El Aaraje has always expressed her refusal of what the People’s Union embodied, it is a political problem, before knowing who is legitimate”, explained the former coordinator of the Left Party to Agence France-Presse ( AFP), in early May.