French presidential candidate of the far-right National Rally Party, Marine Le Pen, at a rally in Perpignan on April 7, 2022 afp_tickers This content was published on April 9, 2022 – 9:39 AM April 9, 2022 – 9:39 AM ( AFP)
After an atypical election campaign marred by the war in Ukraine, the French are reconsidering before voting in Sunday’s first round of presidential elections, with current president, centrist Emmanuel Macron, and far-right Marine Le Pen seen as favourites .
After weeks and even months of electoral campaigning, the newspapers are warning of the “test for democracy” that Sunday’s elections will represent, which will produce the two candidates, out of a total of 12, who will fight the keys to the Elysee in the 24/4 election.
The abstention rate is one of the big unknowns of the elections held after Macron’s first term in office, which was marked by social protests against his policies towards the popular class, the coronavirus pandemic and now the fallout from the war in Ukraine.
Many political scientists believe that the first-round abstention record of 2002 (28.4%) can be beaten, contributing to the second-round election of Conservative Jacques Chirac and far-right Jean-Marie Le Pen, father of Marine. In 2017, the abstention rate was 22.2%.
“Indecisiveness is also a sign of democratic fatigue,” analyzed the newspaper Le Parisien this Saturday, for which the common thread of the campaign was the concern of the French “for the world around them and their immediate future,” but no consensus.
“Nobody is voting around me and everyone is giving up,” lamented Christine Mazaud, a 75-year-old pensioner, at a Paris market.
Macron, 44, played the ruse of a stable president in times of crisis and reformists; Le Pen, 53, chose to present herself as a defender of purchasing power amid concerns about rising energy and food prices.
These were the major issues that shaped the election debate, which, due to current events, also briefly addressed migration, the unrest on the French island of Corsica and the controversial appointment of external consultants by the French government.
In contrast to previous elections, the issue of climate change was not very present. To warn of the climate emergency, left-wing organizations called for several demonstrations in France this Saturday, at which some candidates could be seen.
– “International alliances at stake” –
After Reflection Day, when it is banned from broadcasting polls and campaigns, polling stations will open at 08:00 (06:00 GMT) on Sunday, except in some overseas territories, which will do so hours earlier due to the time difference.
From 20:00 (18:00 GMT), when the last schools are closed, the results will be known, which could cause surprises. The left Jean-Luc Mélenchon has a chance to avoid a repeat of the 2017 scenario with Macron and Le Pen.
The results will be followed worldwide because, as the Ouest France regional newspaper pointed out this Saturday, the elections are “important” because of “France’s weight in Europe” and because “the election of [sus] International Alliances.
With his offensive in Ukraine, launched on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin shook the world chess board and revived traditional debates in France about what position to take towards Moscow.
Although presidential candidates unanimously condemned the military operation, consensus on the degree of strength of the international response to Putin was broken, with some even advocating exit from NATO once the conflict was over.
The Russian invasion also exacerbated the rise in energy prices, which in turn fueled inflation and French fears of a possible loss of purchasing power. This aspect fueled the protests that rocked Macron’s rule in 2018 and 2019.