According to the latest opinion polls, the competition is intense between the outgoing president, Emmanuel Macron, and the candidate of the National Rally Party, Marine Le Pen. According to an Elab poll published on Friday, Emmanuel Macron had 26 percent of voting intentions and Marine Le Pen with 25 percent, by one point in the first round.
The issue of immigration and the future of immigrants is among the thorny issues that created controversy between the twelve candidates, as the classic and extreme right-wing camp in the person of Le Pen and the founder of the far-right “Restore France” party, Eric Zemmour, considers that the current laws must become more stringent towards immigrants in order to protect French identity, while the left camp opens its arms to them, and seeks to facilitate the process of their entry into French soil and their integration into society.
According to the latest figures from the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies dating back to 2021, there are 7 million immigrants in France, or 10.3 percent of the 67.6 million French, of whom 2.5 million have acquired French citizenship, and about half of the immigrants living in France (47.5 percent). ) were born in Africa, approximately 3.3 million people. The Observatory for Secularism estimates that in 2019, there were about five million French Muslims in the country.
abstain from voting
French law allows immigrants with French citizenship to participate in the electoral process and to vote.
However, political analyst Benjamin Morell believes in his statement to “Sky News Arabia” that the majority of French immigrants from North African or sub-Saharan countries are reluctant to vote in any electoral entitlement.
On the reasons for this weak participation, the political analyst explains that “the majority of immigrants who are over 18 years old and live on the margins of cities, often do not register in the electoral lists six weeks before the first round of the presidential elections, which deprives them of the right to participate in this Democratic Action.
Also, because they are absent from field research, it is difficult to mobilize and reach them. Failing to challenge the mobilization of this category of citizens and given the election campaign of the left-wing candidate, Jean-Luc Melenchon, it is highly likely that they will vote for him.
And he continues: “As for the group that refuses to vote, it takes a sharp stance on the political debates in the electoral campaign, most of which are wrong.”
In the face of great fears of the danger of abstaining from the vote that hovered more than ever around the Sunday vote, the Rhone Mosques Council, through its president, Kamel Kabtan, called, on Wednesday, April 6, the Muslim community in France, to “confirm its citizenship without complications and to attend in large numbers.” at the polling stations in both rounds to fulfill their civic obligations and stand in the way of those who want, without restraint, to expel Muslims from France who are not second-class citizens.”
Immigrants don’t make the victor
Although many members of the immigrant community in France had voted for Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 presidential elections, Benjamin Morell believes that in order to make the difference in his favor against Le Pen, in the next election, “he must mobilize among the popular class to which most immigrants belong.”
It is mentioned that in France there has become a form of “normalization in the vote”, and Morel explains this by saying: “In the first round, we find integrity in the votes. In light of the rise of the supporters of the Socialist Front, there are no votes from middle-class or rich immigrants, since most of them From the popular class residing in the margins. And if they vote, they will certainly vote for Melenchon. The main conclusion is that there is no singularity of votes emanating from immigration.”
As for the second round, he says, “Although Le Pen tried to soften her image by asserting that she does not adopt a radical rhetoric and does not agree with Zemmour and that she does not confuse Islam and Islamism, Macron will seek to warn against her radical ideologies in the decisive stage. However, this will not help, if He did not conduct an electoral mobilization campaign for this category in marginal areas, because Macron does not need only support, but votes and numbers that count for him.
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