The Rassemblement national, buoyed by wins in Hénin-Beaumont in 2014 and Bruay-la-Buissière in 2020, aims to expand into left-wing strongholds in the Pas-de-Calais mining basin for municipal elections.
The Pas-de-Calais mining basin, scarred by mine closures, social decline, and unemployment, provides fertile ground for the far right. Hénin-Beaumont has served as a bridgehead since 2014, following a period of chaotic management under socialist Gérard Dalongeville, elected in 2001 and re-elected in 2008, but revoked in 2009 over rigged public contracts and a debt explosion that led to local tax hikes.
Steeve Briois, then a mere opposition councilor, saw his rise accelerated by Marine Le Pen's involvement. In 2009, she ranked second on his list in the election after the mayor's revocation. Though the left still prevailed, municipal councils turned into arenas of tension, filled with accusations and shouts.
In 2014, Briois won in the first round. Marine Tondelier, in opposition, recounts in her book News from the Front (2017) how « over the months, a leaden shroud descends. It silences the discontented, divides the residents. Whether political opponents, association militants, municipal employees, or journalists, the recalcitrants are harassed, slandered, and discouraged ».
Despite strong national performances by the FN and then RN, local left-wing officials hold firm. In 2020, Ludovic Pajot captured Bruay-la-Buissière (21,000 residents), the second mid-sized town to flip. Briois, re-elected with 74% in the first round, hails this win as a symbol of the RN's local entrenchment.
