The first records of participation in this Sunday’s French legislative elections indicate the lowest abstention in recent decades.
By noon Paris time, 25% of French voters had already voted. Participation is the highest recorded in recent decades. Two years ago, only 18.43% of the electorate had voted by that time and, in the 2017 elections, 19.24%, according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior.
The most recent elections with a similar turnout at the same time were the first round in 1997, another early election, with a turnout of 22.74%. This was the last year to see a massive turnout of the French electorate, with a turnout of 67.9%.
Voting intention surveys project that this Sunday it is possible that participation will be close to that recorded that year, varying between 64% and 66%, around 2/3 of the 49 million French voters.
The great popular interest in the election is due to the rise of the nationalist right in France, which has its best chance of governing the country. The National Rally (RN, formerly the National Front) party won the most votes in the French elections for the European Parliament, held on June 9.
For this reason, French President Emmanuel Macron brought forward the elections for the National Assembly. After the first round this Sunday, voting for the second round will be held on July 7th.
During the morning, the leaders of the RN party voted, Marine Le Pen, who has already run for president of the country, and Jordan Bardella, identified by polls as the favorite to be the next French prime minister.
Manuel Bombard, coordinator of the left-wing party France Insubmissa (LFI), the current prime minister, Gabriel Attal, and former socialist president Françoise Hollande, who is a candidate for deputy in Corrèze, have also voted. President Macron has also attended the polls, accompanied by his wife Brigitte.
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