Incumbent President Emmanuel Macron topped the first round of the French presidential election on Sunday, according to initial estimates, ahead of far-right leader Marine Le Pen by a few points, whom he will face on April 24 in a duel that looks tight.
Sunday evening, Emmanuel Macron addressed the French, thanking those who voted for him and promising others that he was ready to invent something new to bring together all sensibilities.
Emmanuel Macron also thanked Anne Hidalgo, Yannick Jadoe, Valérie Pécresse and Fabien Roussel, who gave him their support for the second round.
Numbers
According to three estimates from various institutes, Mr. Macron comes first with scores between 28.6 and 29.7% at the end of a campaign strongly disrupted by the pandemic and by the war in Ukraine.
Marine Le Pen comes second, between 23.5 and 24.7%, according to estimates by the OpinionWay, IFOP, and Harris institutes, ahead of the leader of the radical left Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who oscillates between 20 and 21% of the vote.
Mr. Mélenchon also urged his supporters on Sunday evening not to give a single voice to Marine Le Pen on April 24.
The candidates Yannick Jadot, ecologist, Anne Hidalgo, socialist, and Fabien Roussel, communist, quickly called to vote for Emmanuel Macron in the second round in order to block Marine Le Pen.
These four candidates represent around 15% of the votes in the first round, according to estimates.
The largest trade union in France, the French Democratic Confederation of Labor CFDT called on Sunday evening to vote against Marine Le Pen on April 24.
Zemmour calls for a vote for Le Pen
On the other hand, the far-right candidate Éric Zemmour, who obtained around 7% of the vote, called on his voters on Sunday evening to vote for his rival.
I have many disagreements with Marine Le Pen. But there is a man facing her who has brought in two million immigrants, who have never mentioned the theme of identity. I will not be mistaken in my opponent, declared Mr. Zemmour in front of his supporters.
Marine Le Pen, for her part, called on the French to come together around a major national and popular project.
What will be played on April 24 will be a choice of society and civilization, she launched.
Up to 48 million voters could exercise their right to vote. Abstention is particularly high, between 26.2% and 29.1%, according to two estimates, which marks the growing disdain of the French vis-à-vis their political class.
This is more than the 22.2% in 2017, while the record was 28.4% in 2002.
Reflection of polls
Polls predicted that Mr. Macron was to come out on top ahead of Ms. Le Pen, as in the previous poll, in 2017, with radical left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon in third place.
Ms. Le Pen and Mr. Mélenchon have very different positions from those of Mr. Macron on several international issues. They are for example much more hostile to European integration and say they want to get out of the integrated command of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Many political scientists fear that the abstention record of 2002 (28.4%), the highest level ever recorded for the first round of presidential elections, will be beaten.
The voice of voters
In Pantin, in the Paris region, Blandine Lehout, a 32-year-old actress, did not vote.
“It’s the first time in my life, but now I hate them all. We are at a stage where they scare me.”
A quote from Blandine Lehout
In Marseille, Carole Junique, 47, who works in the civil service, came first thing in the morning.
In France, we have the right to vote, it is important to keep it. Of course, we only have one voice among others, but if everyone mobilizes, it can change things, she underlined.
Many did not hide that their choice was difficult. Cédric Hodimont, in his forties, thus regrets having made a default vote.
In Paris, voters took their patience to vote.
The various opinion polls showed before the first round that Ms. Le Pen and Mr. Mélenchon had been in a dynamic of progress for several days, which substantially reduced the gap with the outgoing president, who entered the campaign late.
However, the abstention and the fact – still according to the polls – that a considerable part of the electorate was not sure of their choice seemed to leave things open.
Of the twelve, I had selected four last night, and I decided this morning, explained Françoise Reynaud, 55, Marseille voter.
Behind this trio, the other candidates seemed off the hook, in particular the traditional right-wing contender Valérie Pécresse and the other far-right candidate, Éric Zemmour.
Emmanuel Macron voted in Le Touquet, in the north of France.
For the second round, the polls give Mr. Macron the winner. He would win with a score of between 54% and 51% against 46%-49% for Marine Le Pen, according to polls carried out on Sunday after the first round.
The IFOP poll was carried out on Sunday from 8:01 p.m. to 9 p.m. local time, with a sample of 968 people registered on the electoral lists extracted from a sample of 1,004 people representative of the French population aged 18 and over. . The margin of error is 3%.
That of OpinionWay was also carried out on Sunday with a sample of 1739 people.
The IPSOS sample consisted of 1172 people.
The score would thus be much tighter than five years ago when Emmanuel Macron won by 66.1% of the vote against 33.9% for Ms. Le Pen.
This first round closes several months of a campaign from which the major issues, in particular climate change, have been absent. Purchasing power has been listed as the main concern of voters, especially since the war in Ukraine has caused significant inflation.
By an effect of communicating vessels, the daughter and heiress of the sulphurous far-right tribune Jean-Marie Le Pen found herself refocused on the political chessboard by the irruption of Éric Zemmour.
Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen cast her ballot in Hénin-Beaumont, northern France.
Mr. Macron, for his part, played on his image as commander-in-chief monopolized by the health and international crises. This posture first served him but then made him appear disconnected from the daily concerns of the French. His image has also been damaged by his refusal to engage in televised debates with his opponents.
Aware of the danger, the outgoing president called, from the beginning of April, for mobilization against a trivialized extreme right and claimed to have a spirit of conquest rather than a spirit of defeat.
