By 12:00 pm on Sunday, 25.48% of the 48.7 million registered voters had voted. Turnout, which the institutes had previously expected to be quite low, was actually slightly below the comparative 28.54 percent at midday for Sunday’s 2017 election — but also above the 21.39 percent low for the 2017 election. worst turnout so far in the first round. the 2002 presidential election. Macron, Le Pen and the other ten candidates vote at noon.
Because of the time difference, some French overseas territories, such as the Caribbean, voted on Saturday. In the rest of France, polling stations will close at 8pm on Sunday. The first extrapolations are then awaited.
Left-wing politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon also wants to enter the final vote. In view of the visible economic consequences of the war in Ukraine for the French population, he won favor with sociopolitical demands. For weeks, the election campaign focused mainly on French purchasing power and anti-price sentiments. More recently, Mélenchon ranked third in the polls – albeit slightly behind Macron and Le Pen.
The line-up before the election shows France in three blocks. Macron, who as a center politician wanted to smooth the classic divide between the left and right camps, is now faced primarily with two candidates from the fringes of the political spectrum. The traditional parties of the Socialists and Republicans played almost no role in the election campaign. You are heading for a strong electoral defeat. Socialists even threaten to be overtaken by communists. Meanwhile, Le Pen of Rassemblement National, long considered far-right, has tried to adopt a more moderate stance and positioned himself as a viable alternative to far-right newcomer Éric Zemmour.
The French president is elected for five years. He has significant influence on the country’s politics and often plays a more important role than the prime minister and head of government he appoints.