AA – The President of France, Emmanuel Macronwon re-election with 58.54% of the vote to 41.46% for his rival Marine Le Pen in Sunday’s elections, according to final results released by the Interior Ministry.
The victory, however, was marked by abstention, the “protest vote” and widespread support for Macron to prevent Le Pen from coming to power, as acknowledged by the same French President who is facing next June’s general election with this rock bottom scenario will.
In his victory speech, Macron acknowledged that the majority of voters had voted against far-right Le Pen and that he would have to “try harder” to win the approval of the French people.
Macron received a total of 18,779,641 votes, which is just 38.52% of the total eligible votes and the lowest share of votes for an elected president since 1969, when Georges Pompidou received 37.51% of the vote.
For his part Le Pen He received 27.28% with 13,297,760 votes, by far the highest share of the vote received by a far-right candidate in the country’s history.
The most striking aspect of the data was the number of voters, as 28.01%, 13,656,109 out of 48.75 million, abstained to exercise their democratic right.
This is the highest number of abstentions in the second round of a presidential election since 1969, when 31.15% of voters chose not to vote.
In addition, 2,228,044 voters, or 4.57%, left their ballots blank as a sign of protest.
Opinion polls ahead of the vote showed that a majority of voters hoping for political change were disappointed by the Macron-Le Pen runoff.
The data shows that there is a general disinterest and political apathy towards the elections among the French, as a large percentage abstained in last June’s regional elections.
Macron now faces the challenge of general elections scheduled for June 12-19. The National Assembly consists of 577 deputies who will determine the form of policy and legislation for the next five years.
Le Pen of the far-right National Regrouping party vowed to remain active and in opposition despite her defeat as president and to fight for a victory in the general elections.
It remains to be seen whether Le Pen will accept her opponent Erick Zemmour’s offer to unite in a national alliance of far-right parties to defeat candidates from Macron’s party.
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