French polling stations opened on Sunday morning for the first round of presidential elections. In the polls, current French President Emmanuel Macron (La République en Marche) and the far-right Marine Le Pen (Rassemblement National) are on track to advance to the second round. It will take place on April 24, after which it will become clear which candidate has been elected president. In addition to Macron and Le Pen, there are ten other candidates on the ballot. French voters can vote until eight o’clock tonight.
Macron has campaigned little in recent weeks, in his own words because the war in Ukraine is taking his time. Le Pen, meanwhile, visited French villages to present himself as ‘the candidate of purchasing power’, able to protect the French against price increases. It seems to be working: in the polls for the second round of elections, Le Pen is at 48 percent of the vote.
Based on the polls, it seems that relatively few people intend to vote. It is expected that 73 percent of those entitled to vote will go to the polls, five percentage points less than in 2017. Apathy is especially prevalent among young people. Low turnout could be a problem for Macron, writes Politicobecause the supporters of other candidates are more motivated to go to the polls.
Also read: Marine Le Pen advances with radical right program under ‘cloak of everydayness’