Arsene Duclos (1991-) was a French The Republicans politician who served as President of the Aveyron department council from 20 April 2020.
Biography[]
Arsene Duclos was born in Decazeville, Aveyron department, France in 1991. He passed the bar exam in 2015, and he also became involved in local politics as a member of the conservative "The Republicans" party. During the 2020 local elections, Duclos was selected as his party's leader, and he led the Republicans to place in second with 18.61% of the vote and 7/35 seats on the council, after La République En Marche!'s 20.95% and 7/35 seats, and before the Socialist Party's 14.47% and 5/35 seats, the National Rally's 11.43% and 4/35 seats, the French Communist Party's 11% and 4/35 seats, La France Insoumise's 9.67% and 3/35 seats, MoDem's 7.79% and 3/35 seats, Reconquete's 3.62% and 1/35 seats, and the Union of Democrats and Independents' 2.45% and 1/35 seats. Duclos went on to defeat LREM leader Margaux Delafose by a margin of 51.9% to 48.1% to become president of the department council.
Tenure[]
Duclos inherited a budget of €118 million and a weekly increase of €3 million. Under Duclos, the departmental council voted 24-4 to approve new public housing, 24-5 for labor unions, 10-8 in favor of the creation of a nuclear testing site (with the Communists and Reconquete opposing, and 15 deputies - mostly from the Socialists, En Marche, and half of the Republicans - abstaining), 15-10 for an airport tax, 29-3 to make the department council presidential elections a multi-party election, 25-5 to create a football league, 23-5 for daylight saving time, 19-7 for road maintenance programs, 25-9 against an air travel tax, 15-15 against highway tolls (with 4 abstentions), and 31-1 to keep agriculture research (with only En Marche! deputy Josue Lecocq voting to abolish it). At the end of the year, Reconquete staged protests against the departmental administration. At the start of 2021, Aveyron had a shrunken budget of €61 million with a weekly increase of €4 million, and public dissatisfaction with the government had grown due to its transportation, environment, and social policies. In 2021, the council voted 14-12 to allow same-sex marriages and 20-3 to implement a dog license program.
During the 22-28 March 2021 fundraising season (the week before the council elections), The Republicans experienced disappointing results. LREM raised €154 million, followed by the Republicans with €110 million, the Socialists with €109 million, the National Rally with €100 million, the Communists with €95 million, MoDem with €57 million, La France Insoumise with €53 million, Reconquete with €52 million, and UDI with €36 million. A week later, on 29 March 2021, the new elections were held, and LREM fell to 20.88% (-.07%) and 7/35 seats, The Republicans fell to 16.33% (-2.28%) and 6/35 seats (-1 seat), the Socialists fell to 13.94% (-.53%) and 5/35 seats, the Communists rose to 12.54% (+1.54%) and 4/35 seats, the National Rally rose to 12.54% (+1.11%) and 4 seats, MoDem rose to 8.09% (+.3%) and 3/35 seats, France Insoumise fell to 7.8% (-1.87%) and 3/35 seats, Reconquete rose to 4.77% (+1.15%) and 2/35 seats (+1 seat), and UDI rose to 3.1% (+.65%) and 1/35 seats. The election was rather inconsequential, apart from Reconquete candidate Elisa Brian capturing a seat previously belonging to the Republicans. A week later, the council voted 19-10 to approve a consumption tax.
On 12 April 2021, the new electoral system proved to be disastrous, as no clear winner emerged. Duclos and Socialist candidate Edouard Blaise tied with 15.2% each, while National Rally leader Alexia Hemery and MoDem leader Olivier Brunet tied for second with 13% each, LREM's Margaux Delafose tied with the PCF's Anne-Marie Jacquinot for third with 10.9%, Reconquete's Bernadette Bachelot placed in fourth with 8.7%, and LFI's Thierry Mallet and UDI's Capucine Blanc tied for fifth with 6.5% each. The lack of a clear winner enabled Duclos to continue serving as departmental president.
During Duclos' second term, the departmental council voted 14-10 to abolish the unpopular income tax in a vote which divided the LREM, 14-9 to approve an agricultural subsidy, 12-12 against a school bus tax, 14-10 to keep the road maintenance program, 20-3 in favor of environmental education, 25-1 to legalize prostitution, 27-0 to keep the robbery penalty, 15-7 to approve universal primary education, 17-11 to implement capital punishment (opposed by the left and center, apart from LFI, and leading to five weeks of PCF protests), 23-5 for a waste tax to deal with the department's financial crisis (the budget reached -€32 million with a weekly decline of €4 million), 15-11 to approve a scholarship 23-4 to implement highway tolls, 20-12 against an air travel tax, 17-9 to abolish labor unions (leading to the PCF taking a blow to its popularity), and 13-13 against protest prohibition (with the right supporting the bill).
By the first week of 2022, the budget had reached -€101 million, with a weekly increase of €101 million. The 7-13 February 2022 fundraising week saw the left experience major blows: LREM's fundraising fell to €150 million, the Republicans rose to €128 million, the National Rally rose to €116 million, the Socialist Party fell to €105 million, Reconquete rose to €82 million, the PCF fell to €80 million, MoDem fell to €56 million, UDI rose to €42 million, and LFI fell to €41 million. Every left-of-center party experienced a decline in raised funds, while the National Rally surpassed the Socialist Party as the anticipated third party at the 2022 departmental council elections. Additionally, the Communist Party, which was blamed by the right for supporting expensive labor unions and by the left for failing to protect the laborers from the union-busting law, experienced a significant decline in support, while deunionized workers vented their frustration at the struggling economy by voting for the far-right instead.
On 14 March 2022, new elections were held, and LREM fell to 19.72% (-1.16%) and 7/35 seats, the Republicans fell to 16% (-.33%) and 6/35 seats, the National Rally rose to 14.54% (+2%) and 5/35 seats (+1 seat), the Socialist Party fell to 13.88% (-.06%) and 5 seats, Reconquete rose to 10.2% (+5.43%) and 4/35 seats (+2 seats), the PCF fell to 9.91% (-2.63%) and 3 seats (-1 seat), MoDem fell to 6.46% (-1.63%) and 2 seats (-1 seat), LFI fell to 5.62% (-2.18%) and 2/35 seats (-1 seat), and UDI rose to 3.68% (+.58%) and 1/35 seats. The election was a major success for the far-right, which increased its share of seats from 6 to 9 and its vote from 17.31% to 24.74%, while the far-left experienced an electoral catastrophe as its seat count fell from 7 to 5 seats and its combined vote share declined from 20.34% to 15.53%.
On 28 March 2022, the presidential elections were once again tied, with Duclos and PCF leader Jacquinot tying in first with 14%, followed by the leaders of LREM, MoDem, and LFI in second with 12% each, UDI and the Socialists in third with 10% each, and RN and Reconquete in fourth with 8% each. While Anne-Marie Jacquinot remained the most popular politician in the department, Duclos managed to yet again scrape by through a technicality in the multi-party voting system.
During Duclos' third term, the council voted 22-4 to abolish the agricultural subsidy, 18-8 to keep daylight saving time, 17-7 to keep the national football league, 15-7 to support NATO amid the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, 16-7 to keep the airport tax, 13-10 to keep primary education, 14-12 to keep the scholarship program, 18-4 to keep public housing, 10-9 to keep agriculture research, 21-10 against an animal testing ban, and 20-12 to abolish environmental education. On 7 November 2022, a new poll came out indicating that LREM was expected to place in first at the next election with 18.7% of the vote, followed by the Socialists with 16.8%, the National Rally with 15.1%, the Republicans with 13.5%, Reconquete with 9.4%, MoDem with 8.9%, the PCF with 8.1%, FI with 5.8%, and UDI with 3.6%. This would mean the continued decline of the far-left, the National Rally stealing votes from Reconquete, LREM continuing to hold a tenuous and diminished lead, the Socialist Party making a comeback, and the Republicans experiencing a significant decline. The council proceeded to vote 14-12 against a child benefit. On 13-19 February, fundraising information showed that LREM had fallen to €132 million, while the Socialists had risen to €127 million, National Rally had fallen to €112 million, the Republicans had fallen to €91 million, Reconquete fell to €78 million, MoDem rose to €67 million, UDI rose to €60 million, the PCF fell to €60 million, and FI rose to €46 million.
On 27 February 2023, the next round of elections was held. LREM fell to 18.31% (-1.41%) and 7/35 seats, the Socialist Party rose to 18.17% (+4.29%) and 6 seats (+1 seat), the National Rally rose to 14.61% (+.07%) and 5 seats, the Republicans fell to 13.02% (-2.98%) and 5/35 seats (-1 seat), Reconquete fell to 9.39% (-.81%) and 3/35 seats (-1 seat), MoDem rose to 8.83% (+2.37%) and 3 seats (+1 seat), the PCF fell to 8.33% (-1.58%) and 3 seats, FI rose to 5.71% (+.09%) and 2 seats, and UDI fell to 3.63% (-.5%) and 1 seat. Many working-class voters lent their support to the Socialist Party, which sapped votes from the declining Communists, as well as Reconquete. Meanwhile, centrist voters disillusioned with both the Republicans and LREM switched their support to MoDem. The election was a minor defeat for the right, which lost two seats to the center and center-left.
On 13 March 2023, the election for departmental president again had absurd results: Duclos and LREM's Delafose tied in first with 15% each, followed by the Socialist Party's Blaise with 12.5%, and a stunning five-way tie for third between the RN, MoDem, PCF, the Socialists, and UDI with 10% each, and Reconquete placing in last with 7.5%. Duclos thus returned for a fourth term, his third consecutive term without winning the election.