We vote today for the expected presidential elections in France, a vote that the whole of Europe looks to both for the influence that the war in Ukraine has played on the electoral campaign, and for the possible repercussions on the Union policy of a change of guard at the Elysée.
The participation in the first round of the presidential elections at noon is 3 points lower than that recorded in 2017 in the last elections for the Elysée: on a sunny day there were 25.48% of voters who at 12 had deposited the ballot in the ‘urn. In 2017 at the same time it was 28.54%, in 2012 28.3%. The figures are from the Ministry of the Interior. However, participation is 4 points higher than on April 21, 2002, which remains the negative record for participation in the vote. The pollsters had insisted in recent days on the risk that the abstention would exceed that of 2002.
The appeals of the candidates
Macron – Leading in the polls but down with 26.5 per cent of the votes, by speaking to RTL he attacked his main opponent, Marine Le Pen. “Her remains a racist program, of great brutality and full of falsehood from a social point of view,” said the head of the Elysée, also rejecting the accusations of his opponents of failure to campaign. Macron acknowledged that “he took the field later than he wanted”, specifying however that this did not prevent him “from going to convince the French at any free moment, whether it was morning, afternoon or evening”.
Le Pen – The leader of the Rassemblement National, who tails the presidential candidate with 24 percent in the forecasts, responded by challenging him to find in his program “a single proposal that discriminates against the French because of their origin, their religion or the color of their their skin “; while you, speaking of the war in Ukraine, reiterated your desire “to bring Russia closer to Europe” and your opposition to the embargo on Russian oil and gas. Closing her cycle of meetings in Perpignan, the populist called for mobilization, inviting the French “not to abstain, especially if they are patriots.”