The 11th constituency of the Pas-de-Calais is a French legislative constituency in the Pas-de-Calais département. It elects one député to the National Assembly. It has been represented by Marine Le Pen since 2017.

Description

For the 2012 French legislative election, the constituency attracted nationwide and international attention, as for the first time two candidates from the 2012 French presidential election stood as candidates there: Marine Le Pen of the National Front and Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the Left Front. Since 2007, Le Pen had been an opposition member of the Socialist Party-held town council in Hénin-Beaumont, the largest town in the constituency, while Mélenchon had argued that the Pas-de-Calais is "the birthplace of the workers' movement in France and should not be abandoned to the far-right". Opinion polls a month before the election suggested Le Pen would finish first in the first round, during which the political left was divided among several parties, but she would be beaten by Kemel or Mélenchon in the second round,"Législatives: Mélenchon battrait Le Pen, selon un sondage", Libération, 20 May 2012. with the Left Front potentially taking the constituency from the locally embattled Socialists."Le duel Le Pen - Mélenchon aura bien lieu à Hénin-Beaumont", L'Express, 12 May 2012."M. Mélenchon "nationalise" Hénin-Beaumont", Le Monde, 19 May 2012."A Hénin-Beaumont, le parti de Marine Le Pen joue la carte du "FN de proximité"", Le Monde, 19 May 2012. The Le Pen–Mélenchon duel attracted international media attention,"Wahlkampf in Frankreichs Norden: Duell der Populisten", Der Spiegel, 5 June 2012."Wahlkampf bei den Ch'tis", Die Tagezeitung, 6 June 2012."Le Pen gegen Melenchon - Duell der Fallschirmspringer", Tagesschau, 7 June 2012. including for what it revealed of attitudes and expectations in an area of northern France hit hard by deindustrialisation and unemployment."Marine Le Pen challenged on home turf", Die Welt, 12 May 2012."France election: Le Pen and Melenchon duel for northern town", BBC News, 8 June 2012."Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon face off again for French votes", The Telegraph, 3 June 2012. The Guardian wrote that, in that regard, "Mélenchon blames what he sees as pernicious free-market capitalism and bankers; Le Pen points the finger at immigrants and Europe"."France's champion of the left sends a challenge to Marine Le Pen", The Guardian, 26 May 2012.

Previous office-holders The seat had traditionally been held by the French Left until 2017. In 1988, Socialist candidate Noël Josèphe had been the only candidate in the second round, which he won unopposed. In 1993, the seat went to the French Communist Party member Rémy Auchedé; Marcel Cabiddu, winning unopposed in the second round, took it back for the Socialists in 1997; he was re-elected in 2002. Upon his death in 2004, the seat went to his suppléante Odette Duriez, who then won the 2007 election."Un bastion de la gauche sur des sables mouvants" , La Voix du Nord.

ElectionMemberParty 1986 Proportional representation – no election by constituency 1988 Noël Josèphe PS 1993 Rémy Auchedé PCF 1997 Marcel Cabiddu PS2002 2004 Odette Duriez2007 2012 Philippe Kemel 2017 Marine Le Pen FN2022 RN2024

Election results

2024 CandidatePartyAllianceFirst roundSecond roundVotes%+/–Votes%+/–Marine Le PenRN58.04+4.08Samira LaalPSNFP26.05+2.62Dorian LamyUDIEnsemble7.58-4.74Michel LanoyLRUDC4.75newGeoffrey FournierREC1.44newDominique GaiLO1.40-0.11Gautier WeinmannDVG0.74Votes100.00Valid votes96.86-1.17Blank votes2.11+0.91Null votes1.03+0.26Turnout61.74+19.14Abstentions38.26-19.14Registered votersSource: Result RN HOLD

2022

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2017 Philippe Kemel of the Socialist Party, the incumbent deputy, was defeated in the first round. This left only Marine Le Pen, who finished second by less than half a percentage point in the 2012 election, and Anne Roquet of President Emmanuel Macron's recently created En Marche! party. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who came in third in the first round of the 2012 election, did not run, instead opting to run for a seat in Bouches-du-Rhône's 4th constituency. He was replaced by Jean-Pierre Carpentier of La France insoumise, a party founded by Mélenchon, and finished in fourth place.

CandidateLabelFirst roundSecond roundVotes%Votes%Marine Le PenFN46.0258.60Anne RoquetREM16.4341.40Philippe KemelPS10.83Jean-Pierre CarpentierFI9.97Hervé PolyPCF5.00Alexandrine PintusLR4.18Marine TondelierECO3.55Flore LatasteEXG1.09Rachid FerahtiaECO1.05Betty LeclercqDLF0.80Aude LesageDIV0.49Vincent CaflersEXD0.38Jacques NikonoffDVG0.20Votes100.00100.00Valid votes98.0993.72Blank votes1.153.85Null votes0.762.43Turnout46.6743.67Abstentions53.3356.33Registered votersSource: Ministry of the Interior

2012 The Union for a Popular Movement did not present a candidate of its own, and instead endorsed as candidate a member of the Democratic Movement, Jean Urbaniak."Sondage : Mélenchon battrait Le Pen à Hénin-Beaumont", Le Monde, 20 May 2012. Urbaniak officially stood as an independent candidate of the centre-right."Débat législatives Hénin-Carvin 11ème circonscription Pas-de-Calais", France 3, 2 June 2012.

A debate was organised among the five main candidates (Kemel, Le Pen, Mélenchon, Tondelier, and Urbaniak) on the regional edition of the France 3 television channel."Législatives : âpre débat entre Mélenchon et Le Pen", Le Monde, 2 June 2012.

+ 2012 French legislative election in Pas-de-Calais' 11th constituencyCandidatePartyFirst roundSecond roundVotes%Votes%Marine Le PenFN42.26%49.89%Philippe KemelPS23.72%50.11%Jean-Luc MélenchonFG21.46%Jean UrbaniakMoDem7.86%Marine TondelierEELV1.60%Michel VastDLR0.92%Murielle Richet0.62%Nathalie HubertLO0.62%Séverine DuvalNPA0.33%Michèle Dessenne–PRCF0.18%Mohamed BousnaneAEI0.16%Rachida SahraouiPR0.15%Pierre Rose 0.11%Daniel CucchiaroEcologist0.00%Valid votes98.20%96.10%Spoilt and null votes1.80%3.90%Votes cast / turnout57.50%59.15%Abstentions42.50%40.85%Registered voters100.00%100.00%

2007

2002 Two candidates stood under the Communist label, including former MP Rémy Auchedé (by now a dissident), but neither was endorsed by the French Communist Party.

1997

* Withdrew before the second round

References

Further reading