(Paris) The French vote on Sunday to elect their next president and choose, as in 2017, between two Frances and two visions of the world: on the one hand Emmanuel Macron, outgoing president given favorite, and on the other Marine Le Pen, leader extreme right which has never seemed so close to the gates of power.
Posted at 11:42
Turnout in the second round of the presidential election stood at 3 p.m. GMT in mainland France at 63.23%, down more than two points compared to 2017 (65.30%), during the same duel. between Mr. Macron and Mr.me Le Pen, announced the Ministry of the Interior.
This figure also marks a decline of almost two points compared to the first round (65.00%) on April 10.
Polling stations – 48.7 million voters are called to the polls – must close at 5 p.m. GMT and 6 p.m. GMT in major cities.
The French are faced with a historic choice: to renew the outgoing president or to elect a woman, which would be a first and would at the same time propel the far right to the head of the country. This option would be a blast that would resonate far beyond the country’s borders, comparable to Britain’s Brexit and the election of Donald Trump in the United States in 2016.
Photo Michel Pinler, Associated Press
Marine Le Pen, who gathered 23.15% of the votes in the first round, slipped her ballot around 11 a.m. in her stronghold of Hénin-Beaumont.
A re-election of Mr. Macron, 44, candidate of the La République en Marche (LREM) party, would represent continuity, even if the candidate president has promised to renew himself in depth, claiming to want to place ecology at the heart of his second- and last term.
He would then be the first French president to be re-elected for a second term in 20 years, since Jacques Chirac in 2002.
His divisive positions on certain subjects, his clumsy or even contemptuous outings and his vertical exercise of power offended some French people, who considered him too disconnected from their daily realities and their difficult end of the month.
He was very early qualified as “president of the rich”, especially after two decisions at the start of his mandate that the left never accepted: abolition of wealth tax (ISF) and reduction in housing aid. .
The violence that punctuated the demonstrations of the social movement of the “Yellow Vests” (including demonstrators blinded after fire from the police) and the treatment deemed “degrading” by several international and national NGOs of migrants (Afghans, Syrians, Sudanese …) on French soil, particularly in Calais (north) have definitively alienated part of the left, from which he nevertheless comes.
“Voting by obligation”
Mme Le Pen, 53, has smoothed and softened her speech, trivialized her image, to the point of rejecting the term far right. It is reaping the fruits of a long strategy of “de-demonization”, even if on the merits, particularly on immigration, its program has not changed.
The arrival of M.me Le Pen at the helm of a nuclear power, endowed with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and driving force of the European Union, would be an earthquake, especially since it would be part of the heavy of a war at the gates of Europe.
In front of a school in Rennes (west), Bernard Maugier, a 76-year-old retiree and living in a sensitive area of the city, says he voted “to avoid a civil war”. “Don’t get the wrong person,” he blurts out.
In Bersée, a rural town in the North of around 2,200 inhabitants, Nicolas Moreau, 44, a municipal councilor, explains that, for him, it was “a vote by obligation”. “It’s not my convictions but we have to make a choice”.
Véronique, who crosses Bersée by bike, returning from Lille where she voted, summarizes: “Between the two choices, we try to choose the least bad”.
In Dijon (east), Lucien Chameroy, 80, says he had “absolutely no hesitation” to come and vote. “I think people don’t realize it: if we don’t vote and it’s the street that decides, it will be the minorities who will take power,” says the retiree.
Two Frances
The latest polls published Friday evening, before the entry into force of the electoral reserve period, give Mr. Macron the favorite, beyond the margin of error. But very far from his 2017 score where he beat his rival by 66.1% of the vote against 33.9%, to become, at 39, the youngest president of the Fifth Republic, established in 1958.
Photo GONZALO FUENTES, Agence France-Presse
President-candidate Emmanuel Macron
The programs of the two candidates are opposite and offer a radically different vision of Europe, the economy, purchasing power, relations with Russia, pensions, immigration, the environment…
After a five-year period peppered with crises, from “Yellow Vests” to COVID-19, these are two Frances facing each other.
To counter his opponent, Emmanuel Macron, who came out on top in the first round (27.85%) with more than four points ahead, reactivated the “republican front” to block the far right.
The National Rally candidate, for her third attempt, bet on another front, “Everything but Macron”.
Between the two rounds, the two candidates courted the electorate of the leader of the radical left Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who came third in the first round on April 10 with nearly 22% of the vote.
Voters will again be called to the polls on June 12 and 19 for the legislative elections where the new president will seek to obtain the majority necessary to govern.