At 9 in the morning (Greek time) polls opened in France and the first voters slowly began to come to the polls.
French citizens usually avoid voting in the early morning hours and at lunchtime, so the first reliable abstention estimates are usually issued in the afternoon.
As for the final results, the first official estimates will be announced after the closing of the last ballot box (21.00 Greek time), since as stipulated by French law, no election result, partial or final, can be announced to the public by any means before the closing of the last polling station in the metropolitan area. territory”.
However, this legislation only concerns France and it is therefore not excluded that the media of other countries, mainly French-speaking ones, may broadcast some predictions of the election result prematurely.
Measures against coronavirus are largely not implemented, as the use of a mask is not mandatory and those who have coronavirus are not required to quarantine.
The 12 candidates are voting in their constituencies, with Emanuel Macron coming to Touche in the Pas-de-Calais region, Marin Le Pen in Henri Beaumont in the same region and Jean-Luc Melanson in Marseille.
Voting takes place in the middle enough uncertainty as to the final result in the second round on April 24, as it could turn out to be a very ambiguous match between the Emanuel Macron and the far-right candidate Marin Lepenwhich had never been seen before being so close to victory.
The 48.7 million French people watched a bizarre election campaign, marked first by a pandemic and then by the war in Ukraine, which partially overshadowed the public debate.
Abstention is a critical parameter
For weeks, polls have been predicting long abstention and estimate that the outgoing president Macron will come first, followed by Le Pen, as happened in the 2017 presidential election, while the candidate of the radical left Jean-Luc Melanson will come third.
Various studies, however, show that Lepen and Melanson have been on the rise for days, significantly reducing the gap with Macron, who entered the election campaign late.
The abstention, combined with the fact, always according to opinion polls, that a large part of the voters remain undecided, makes the game even more ambiguous.
Apart from the trio, the other contenders for the presidency seem to be lagging behind, especially the candidate of the traditional Right Valeri Pekres and the other far-right candidate Eric Zemour.
In the second round, polls predict a victory for Macron, but with a very small lead over Le Pen, which suggests that a victory for the far-right candidate is possible, who, in this case, will be the first woman and the first a far-right candidate to take over the French presidency.
The first round closes the months-long campaign, which has been without major stakes, especially on the issue of climate change. Purchasing power, on the other hand, has been hailed as a major concern for voters, especially as the war in Ukraine raises inflation, further eroding the financial resources of many French people in precarious situation.
Abstention will be a crucial element in these elections. Many political analysts fear that the record abstention of April 21, 2002 (28.4%), which was the highest ever recorded in a first round of presidential elections, could be broken, or surpassed in 2017 (22, 2%), which was also high.
Marin Le Pen focused her campaign on purchasing power, as did Jean-Luc Melanson, whose party chanted slogans for left-wing voters for a “useful” vote in his favor, rather than in favor of many other candidates. like the ecologist Yannick Zandothe socialist If Indalgo or the communist Fabien Roussell.
In the event of a victory for the Far Right, some candidates have already announced their position tonight: Russell will build a wall against Lepen, Pekres will not give direction, but will say who will vote in the second round.
Realizing the danger, Macron, who acknowledges that he entered the election campaign late, has been calling for mobilization against the demonized far right since early April, while on Friday he noted that he is more possessed by a “spirit of conquest than a spirit of defeat.”
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