French Presidential | Macron-Le Pen, take 2

(Paris) The polls were not wrong. As expected, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen won the first round of the presidential election in France on Sunday. The two candidates will face each other again in the second round, exactly as in 2017.

Jean-Christophe Laurence
The Press

According to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, Emmanuel Macron won 27.6% of the vote (nearly 98% of the ballots counted at the time of publication), while the leader of the National Rally crowned her rise in recent weeks with 23 .4% of the vote, one and a half points ahead of the left-wing candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, whose progress has also materialized.

In a speech given in front of his supporters, Emmanuel Macron called for founding, beyond “differences”, “a great political movement of unity and action” in view of the second round of the presidential election, scheduled for April 24.

“In this decisive moment for the future of the nation, nothing should be as before. That’s why I want to reach out to anyone who wants to work for France,” the outgoing president said from his election night HQ.

M. Macron a attaqué frontalement le projet de Marine Le Pen en se posant comme le tenant d’une « Europe forte » et en affirmant défendre le « seul projet pour le pouvoir d’achat », ce dernier thème ayant été particulièrement présent pendant la campagne.

Sa rivale a pour sa part exhorté le peuple à choisir la « grande alternance dont [la] France needs”, inviting “all those who did not vote” for Emmanuel Macron to “join” her for the second round.

“What will be played on April 24 will be a choice of society and civilization,” launched the anti-immigration candidate, who now stands out as the favorite of the working classes.

Good third with 22.0% of the vote, the hope of the left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, obtains a better score than in 2017, but did not manage to cause the surprise of qualifying for the second round.

In a less ambiguous speech than five years ago, the leader of La France insoumise clearly called on his activists not to vote for the far right (“We must not give a single voice to M^me Le Pen”), without encouraging them to fall back on Emmanuel Macron.

The other candidates come far behind with results below 10%.

Éric Zemmour, of the Reconquête! party, finished in fourth position with a disappointing 7.1% of the vote, his worst score since entering the campaign last December.

The former journalist called on his voters to vote for his far-right rival in the second round. “I have many disagreements with Marine Le Pen. But there is a man facing her who has brought in two million immigrants, who has never mentioned the theme of identity, I will not be the wrong opponent, ”he said.

Éric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen together obtain 31% of the vote, which confirms the rise of the far right in France.

The candidate of the Les Républicains party, Valérie Pécresse, ends her disastrous campaign with 4.8% of the vote. For the second time in two elections, the traditional right fails to reach the second round, like the Socialist Party, whose candidate Anne Hidalgo obtains a historically low result of 1.7%. Some evoke a possible disappearance of these parties in decline, which have long been at the center of French political life.

Disappointing result also for Yannick Jadot, of the Ecologist Party (4.6%), who did not know how to print his environmental speech in the electorate, despite the evidence of the climate emergency.

Jean Lassalle (Résistons), Fabien Roussel (Communist Party) and Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (Debout la France) finally collect 3.2%, 2.3% and 2.1% respectively, while the anti-capitalists Philippe Poutou and Nathalie Arthaud plateau less than 1%.

Useful voting

Marked by a higher abstention than in 2017 (25% against 22%), this first round concludes a campaign described as not very exciting, and moreover very largely disrupted by the war in Ukraine, which took hostage the biggest media attention.

In the polling stations on rue Léon-Maurice-Nordmann, in the 13^and district of Paris, the interest was palpable despite everything, a few hours before the unveiling of the results. Voters questioned mobilized to “block”, while others came to “vote useful” (strategic) or “vote for the least worse”, which seems to be the story of this first round.

“Macron does not give me satisfaction. But for me, the real issue is the election of Marine Le Pen. So I vote Mélenchon, even if I don’t love the character, ”explained Julia, without revealing her last name, saying she was “frightened” by the rise of the far right.

“Either we continue for the same, or we replace it. In both cases, I have the impression that we are rocked. That we are not in the field of reality. And that can end badly, ”added Paul, questioned a few minutes later, without revealing his choice.

A new campaign is now starting for the next two weeks.

We will have to follow the traditional televised debate between the two rounds, scheduled for April 20, which could be a key moment in this second round. In 2017, Emmanuel Macron had largely dominated the face-to-face, showing himself to be much better prepared than his opponent.

According to the first polls carried out on Sunday, after the first round, outgoing President Emmanuel Macron would win in the second round against Marine Le Pen, with a score of between 54% and 51%, against 46% to 49% for the RN candidate. . But a victory of M^me Le Pen remains technically possible.

With Agence France-Presse