The number of abstentions in the first round of voting in the French parliamentary elections is said to reach a new all-time high. According to estimates from five polling institutes, between 52.5 percent and 53 percent of voters did not vote. The previous abstinence record is 51.3 percent and dates from 2017.
According to the French Ministry of the Interior, 39.43 percent of French voters had voted by 5 p.m. That percentage is lower than in the first rounds of the parliamentary elections in 2017 (40.75 percent) and 2012 (48.31 percent). It is also lower than in the first round of the French presidential election in 2022 (65 percent).
In France, voting is not compulsory and just like in presidential elections, the absentee voter can play a major role. After all, the electoral system is built on the principle of “the winner takes it all”.
The polls already showed that it will be a neck-and-neck race between Ensemble, the center-left coalition of Macron’s Renaissance party (ex-LREM) with Modem, Agir and Horizon, and Nupes, the left-wing alliance around La France Insoumise (LFI) of Mélenchon, the Greens of EELV, the Social Democrats of the PS and the Communists of the PCF. Both scored 26 to 27 percent in the latest polls. Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National is in third place in the polls with just over 20 percent.
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