Brittany Was Once Barren Ground for Frances Far Right. No More.

So many locals over so many decades have left Gourin in rural Brittany for the United States that Air France awarded the town a miniature Statue of Liberty.So proud were residents of that binational identity, they fund-raised four years ago to have the statue recast in bronze.It sits in a place of prominence, in Gourin’s main square, encircled by poles bearing international flags.And yet, in the recent elections for the European Parliament, almost one-third of local voters opted for the far-right National Rally, a French party built on intense anti-immigration sentiment.“This is an area that knows what it means to be immigrants,” said Pierre-Marie Quesseveur, a member of the local Brittany TransAmerica association, who expressed surprise at the election results.

“We are very open to all cultures.”Equally stunned by the results, and worried about what might happen in the French legislative election that begins this Sunday, was the centrist mayor of Gourin, Hervé Le Floc’h.President Emmanuel Macron announced the snap election on June 9, after the far right trounced his party in the European elections.“We all have some family in the United States,” said Mr.

Floc’h from his office in city hall, which overlooks the mini Lady Liberty.While many of those émigrées stayed in the United States, others returned to Gourin with nest eggs to restart life here.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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