Édouard Philippe, the French prime minister, was in a bakery tasting pastry with a well known female bullfighter as a crowd of onlookers pressed their faces up against the window. “Delicious,” said Philippe. The shopkeeper set about wrapping up a large local cake for the PM, who put his hand in his pocket for cash and went to the till. “I don’t bloody believe this, a politician actually paying for something instead of making off with a freebie,” said one onlooker in shock.

“You’d better win after all this,” shouted one shopper to the bullfighter, Marie Sara, as she and Philippe wandered through the picturesque, medieval walled town of Aigues-Mortes in France’s southern Gard department, shaking hands with locals and stopping in a bar for a Corona beer. “We’re in this to win,” Sara said.

Marie Sara on the campaign trail with the French prime minister, Édouard Philippe. Photograph: Sylvain Thomas/AFP/Getty Images

Philippe’s decision to fly down from Paris to campaign in this tiny constituency, which stretches across the flat, coastal marshlands of the Petite Camargue, was testament to the symbolism of Sara’s close-run battle to win the seat for Emmanuel Macron’s centrist political movement in the second and final round of the French parliamentary elections on Sunday.

This area of Gard, where popular tourist sites belie high unemployment and poverty, is a heartland of the far-right Front National, and one of only two constituencies currently held by an FN member of parliament, the flamboyant Marseille lawyer Gilbert Collard. Collard, whose rambunctious style of politics is a staple of French TV news programmes, hailed Donald Trump’s election in the US as a “great kick up the arse for middle-class media types”.

I don’t bloody believe this​, a politician actually paying for something instead of making off with a freebie

Desperate to unseat him, Macron personally handpicked Sara as a celebrity candidate for his fledgling movement, La République En Marche. At 52, she is one of the country’s few female bullfighters, and after a career fighting on horseback she now breeds bulls at ranches across the south of France. The daughter of a well known Paris film and theatre director, she was once a staple of French celebrity magazines, which fawned over her marriage to the tennis star Henri Leconte. At one point in her career, people threw tennis balls into the bullring when she fought.

Her later marriage to the publicist Christophe Lambert brought her into Macron’s circle of acquaintances. Although she was never in politics, her sympathies were historically centre-right.

“Emmanuel Macron called me two days after he won the presidency saying I had the best chance of leading the fight against the Front National here,” Sara told the Guardian of her surprise entry into politics. “Collard is a very high-profile media face. I was seen as the only one who could compete with that. I back Macron’s programme to the hilt, but I’m also in this to stop the far-right, to stop the Camargue, my territory, turning to the dark and obscure image of the Front National. I want to let the light back in here.”

How does France's parliamentary election system work? The electoral system for France's 577-seat parliament, the Assemblée Nationale, is designed to favour larger parties and make things difficult for smaller ones, who would mostly prefer proportional representation. Like the country's presidential poll, it takes place over two rounds – this year, on 11 and 18 June. It is possible for candidates to win in the first round, providing at least 25% of the voters registered in their constituency turn out and they secure more than 50% of the vote. For the remaining seats, the second round is contested by the two best-placed candidates after the first round, with any others who secured more than 12.5% of the vote.

Macron’s movement is expected to win a landslide victory in Sunday’s elections, gaining an absolute majority in parliament that will be key to his legislative agenda. Many of the likely newcomers have, like Sara, been handpicked from civil society.

Collard’s constituency, which has high youth unemployment and lacks its own high school, shows the complex problems behind the vote. As across France, abstention was at a historic high in the first-round of the parliamentary elections last weekend, with less than half of registered voters taking part. Turnout was particularly low in working-class and poorer areas.

The Camargue has often been the setting for highly staged election drama. It was here that Nicolas Sarkozy, dressed in a checked cowboy shirt and Aviator shades, rode a white horse called Universe before winning the presidency in 2007.

Nicolas Sarkozy on Universe. Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images

The battle between Collard and Sara has been particularly vicious. Sara refused to take part in an official debate with Collard, who called her cowardly. Anti-bullfighting activists led online petitions against her.

“I’ll learn bullfighting if that’s what it takes to be a good MP,” said Collard, accusing Sara of lacking political experience. Key Front National figures arrived in the Camargue this week to support him, including Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, Marine Le Pen’s popular young niece, who is standing down from her own parliamentary seat and withdrawing from politics. Maréchal Le Pen told a packed rally that the French parliament needed Collard’s rebellious “insolence” to stand up to Macron’s predicted majority.



Collard led Sara by only 48 votes in the first round, even though Marine Le Pen came top here in the French presidential election. Far-right voters across France abstained in the parliamentary vote, more so than any other group, and Collard will have to get them to cast their ballots on Sunday if he is to have a chance of beating Sara, who is now seen as the favourite. Only a year ago, the Front National was tipped to win a historic number of parliamentary seats, but the party is now fighting to cling on to this seat and perhaps only win at maximum a handful more.



When supporters at a local Front National rally this week chanted “Gilbert! Gilbert!”, Collard shouted back: “Instead of shouting Gilbert, get out to vote you lazy people!”

I’m in this to stop the far-right, to stop the Camargue turning to the dark and obscure image of the Front National

One local lawyer said: “The result could be tight, but Macron couldn’t have chosen better because bullfighting is a big part of the Camargue identity and Marie Sara was amazing on horseback in her time.”

Michelle Seron, who used to work for a local estate agent, said: “I’ve seen her in the ring, I’ve got her picture on my living room wall and I’ve spotted her shopping in a local supermarket. She’s not a snob.” Didier Lejeune, a local stonemason, said: “Gilbert Collard is a brilliant lawyer, but economically the Front National’s programme is not feasible. I hope Macron can bring some dynamism.”

Marie Sara with the Spanish matador El Juli. Photograph: Sylvain Thomas/AFP/Getty Images

In the nearby seaside town of Le Grau-du-Roi, outside the Super-U hypermarket, several shoppers in shorts and flipflops said they preferred the Front National, but it wasn’t clear they would turn out . “People like me didn’t turn up to vote because we just can’t be bothered with politics anymore,” shrugged one mother who nonetheless described herself as “Front National all the way”.

A retired office worker from Grenoble who voted for Marine Le Pen in the presidential election, said: “I don’t like Macron, I don’t trust him. He won’t do anything to help the have-nots, whereas Marine Le Pen cares about the workingclass.” But she did not vote in the first round of the parliament election and wasn’t going to vote in the second round. “What’s the point? Nothing ever changes for ordinary people like us anyway,” she said.