“10% of the population hopes to be elected,” jokes an administrator | EUROtoday

Who mentioned that politics now not pursuits anybody? In Gouy-Saint-André, in Pas-de-Calais, electoral durations systematically electrify the inhabitants. As every native or nationwide election approaches, agitation spreads to this village of 659 inhabitants. In the 2020 municipal elections, the participation fee reached 80.9% of the 518 registered on the electoral lists, with a victorious record within the first spherical.

Here, the following elections promise to be notably energetic, with 4 lists on the beginning line. A really uncommon state of affairs in a village of this dimension: in response to a research by the Sciences Po Political Research Center revealed in January 2026, entitled “French municipal elections tested by numbers”, there have been, in 2020, lower than two lists on common in municipalities with lower than 1,500 inhabitants.

In Gouy-Saint-André, all of the lists declare to be “without label”, though with political leanings. First there may be the Unite to Succeed record, led by the outgoing “left-wing” mayor Grégory Leroy, a 53-year-old surveyor, elected in 2020. Then there may be the opposition record A New Breath for Our Village, introduced as “right-wing”, coming from the previous municipal crew defeated within the final elections.

We discover an Act collectively for Gouy record, partly composed of dissidents of the outgoing mayor: they supported Grégory Leroy over the past time period, however, believing that he was “a sectarian mayor”, wished to appoint their very own candidate. Finally, there may be the Gouy record for all, by Jean-Louis Lejeune, 74 years previous. This former industrial driller, “son of a peasant, Christian, republican and former Gaullist”, wished to hitch the opposition, however having been thought of persona non grata on the record, subsequently arrange his personal.

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