She is the first member of Elisabeth Borne’s government who fails to be re-elected on Sunday June 19 in the second round of the legislative elections. The Secretary of State for the Sea, Justine Benin, was beaten in the second round in the 2nd constituency of Guadeloupe, against the various left candidate Christian Baptiste, who had the support of the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes) , according to the prefecture of Guadeloupe. Ms. Benin gets only 41.35% of the vote, against 58.65% for her opponent.

Ms. Benin had to win on Sunday to stay in the Borne government, because, as in 2017, members of the government who are candidates for deputy will have to resign in the event of failure. In the government of Elisabeth Borne, Justine Benin is among the fifteen ministers and secretaries of state appointed Friday, May 20 who are running for legislative elections, including the prime minister. Defeated by the mayor of Sainte-Anne, she will therefore have to resign.

Asked after her failure by RCI radio about her future in government, Ms Benin said on Saturday evening that “as things stand [she had] not yet had an answer to that” and should be fixed “by Monday”.

The outgoing MP, invested by the presidential coalition Together!, had however obtained 31.31% of the votes in the first round, Sunday, June 12, and was ahead of Mr. Baptiste by 4.5 points (26.78% of the votes).

Vote anti-Macron

Candidate under the colors of the presidential majority, the elected Democratic Movement (MoDem) is very locally rooted in her constituency, where she was elected in 2017. Former vice-president of the regional council of Guadeloupe – under the socialist majority of Victorin Lurel, the former Minister of Overseas -, elected MP for the 2nd constituency of Guadeloupe in 2017, under a various left label, before approaching the MoDem, Justine Benin defended her record during the campaign: three hundred and sixty – eight amendments tabled, fifty of which were adopted, and fourteen parliamentary reports published. She praised the law of April 2021 on water governance in Guadeloupe, the report of the parliamentary commission of inquiry on chlordecone, of which she was the rapporteur, in 2019, but also a subject of medical cooperation with Cuba, in particular.

The Secretary of State may have suffered from the strong anti-Macron vote which was expressed in the presidential election. The candidate of La France insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, had then totaled 56.1% of the votes in the first round, while the candidate of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen, had gathered 69.6% of the votes in the second round against to Emmanuel Macron.