Voters vote in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon for the second round of the presidential elections on Saturday April 23, 2022. JEAN-CHRISTOPHE L’ESPAGNOL / AFP
Overseas and foreign voters will start voting for the second round of the presidential elections starting Saturday, April 23 due to a time difference. In mainland France, polling stations will open at 8am on Sunday 24 April. Off Canada, the Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon archipelago opened the ball locally at 8 a.m. (12 p.m. in Paris), becoming the first overseas territory where it was possible to drop a ballot into the ballot box. Next come Guyana and the islands of the West Indies, the Pacific, and the Indian Ocean.
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The campaign in mainland France officially ended at midnight on Friday. Public meetings, the distribution of leaflets and digital propaganda by the two candidates are prohibited. No interviews or polls or estimates of results can be released before the results, Sunday at 8 p.m.
As in 2017, around 48.7 million French have to choose between two candidates with radically opposite programs in a particularly tense international context with a war raging on the borders of the European Union (EU). Europe, the economy, purchasing power, relations with Russia, pensions, immigration: almost everything separates the two competitors, who, after five years of crises, seem to embody two Frenchmen more than ever, from the “yellow vests” to the Covid19 pandemic.
Abstention, great unknowns of the vote
On the one hand, Emmanuel Macron, 44, who emerged victorious in the first round (27.85%), wants to cross the left-right divide again to win. A favorite in the polls, he hopes to become the first President of the Fifth Republic to be re-elected by general suffrage without cohabitation. He called for the extreme right to be blocked, promised lower taxes, pension reform and more ecology.
On the other hand, Marine Le Pen, 53, wants to become the first extreme right (a term she dislikes) and the first woman to invest in the Elysée. On April 10, she was more than four points (23.15%) behind the outgoing President. Barely beaten five years ago (33.9 percent of the vote), she wants to go against the polls by bringing together a broad anti-Macron front on defending purchasing power and fighting immigration.
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Referees and big unknowns in the voting, the abstention should be high, on Sunday even more than in the first round (26.31%). Just like the blank and zero ballots that hit a record in 2017 and witnessed the refusal of millions of French to choose between the two finalists. The IFOP and Ipsos-Sopra Steria institutes estimate the abstention rate at 26 to 28 percent in their current surveys. Added risk to attendance, the three school zones are on vacation this weekend.
Foreign participation will give a first trend on Saturday. Especially since the leader of the “rebels”, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, due to his third place on 10 Guadeloupe, Martinique and Guyana. His electorate – the largest pool of votes between the two ballots – was particularly courted by the two finalists. But many of his supporters may be tempted to avoid the ballot box.