UDR-RN candidate Antoine Valentin won Sunday's by-election in Haute-Savoie's 3rd constituency with 59.1% of the votes, decisively beating LR's Christophe Fournier. This victory marks the nationalist right's first seizure of a seat in this department, long held by moderate conservatives. It comes weeks before the 2026 municipal elections and is hailed by Éric Ciotti and RN leaders.
Antoine Valentin, 33, mayor of Saint-Jeoire and head of a local ski station, secured 17,341 votes (59.1%) against 12,013 (40.9%) for Christophe Fournier, stand-in for former LR deputy Christelle Petex, according to provisional official results. Turnout reached 34.1%, up slightly from the January 25 first round where Valentin led with about 45% of votes versus Fournier's 15%.
This by-election, in a rural, mountainous constituency near Switzerland and the Glières plateau – a key Resistance site –, followed Christelle Petex's resignation in November 2025. She cited 'too much politicienne politics,' criticism, and threats. With limited interest, the seat will last only until the 2027 presidential election and likely new legislative polls.
Valentin, co-founder of the Politicae institute to support mayoral candidates and backed by ultraconservative billionaire Pierre-Edouard Stérin through the Périclès project, had lost in 2024 to Petex (56%). He ran as the 'candidate of the right' under the UDR-RN alliance formed by Éric Ciotti with the Rassemblement National during the 2024 legislative elections.
Before results, Éric Ciotti congratulated Valentin on X, calling it an 'immense' win and a 'scathing sanction' for LR, which refused to censure the Lecornu government. Jordan Bardella hailed an 'incontestable victory' and a 'signal of hope' for the March 15-22, 2026 municipal elections, while Marine Le Pen slammed LR as 'discredited by their support for Emmanuel Macron and socialist diktats.'
LR leaders Bruno Retailleau and Laurent Wauquiez backed Fournier, but the left's republican front call – from PS, Ecologists, PCF – failed to mobilize. The PCF highlighted the constituency's symbolism near Glières, and Raphaël Glucksmann warned against turning it into an 'extreme-right laboratory.' Ciotti sees it as LR's 'end' and urges a right-wing union against socialist alliances.
