Voters seek an alternative to Macron in blighted France

THE LAST pit in this northern French village closed in 1974, but the silhouettes of its slag heaps still rise in the distance across flat farmland. They bear witness to the muscular past of the mining basin, which a century ago employed 130,000 people. Today its jobless rate is ten points above the national average, and one in five of its people live below the French poverty line of €1,100 ($1,200) a month. Once a week Ma P’tite Epice Rit, a voluntary food truck, stops by the church in Auchy-les-Mines to sell discounted food near its expiry date to those living on less than €10 net a day. The truck serves some 100 residents. “People here are asphyxiated by daily life,” says a local shopkeeper.Bypassed by high-speed trains and breezy ambition, Auchy belongs to what analysts call “peripheral” France. Peggy Belicki, who a year ago set up the food truck, filled with apples, potatoes, cabbages and chocolate tarts, says she caters to all sorts, from pensioners to single parents: “We offer a sort of moral-support service.” For years, this working-class town looked to the Communist Party to supply social assistance and ideological answers. The mayor, Jean-Michel Legrand, is from the Communist Party, as were his predecessors reaching back over half a century.