Abstention, blank vote, vote for Emmanuel Macron? The results of the consultation of some 310,000 supporters of Jean-Luc Mélenchon for the second round of the presidential election were published on Sunday, April 17, on the campaign site of the former candidate of La France insoumise. Among the 215,292 participants, the choice of a blank or null vote obtained 37.65%, followed by the vote for Emmanuel Macron (33.40%) then abstention (28.96%).
“The result of this consultation is not an instruction given to anyone”, specifies a text published with the results. Launched three days after the first round by the candidate, who finished in third place (21.95%) and had called not to “give a single voice to Le Pen”, the consultation on the militant platform of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Popular Action, logically did not include the possibility of support for the candidate of the National Rally.
The MP for Bouches-du-Rhône had already consulted his supporters in 2017, when he finished fourth with 19.58% of the vote, with the same exception: “Not a voice on the far right”. The consultation had led to similar results: a majority – a little shorter than this year – for the blank or null vote (36%), just ahead of the vote for Emmanuel Macron (nearly 35%), a little less one third remaining speaking in favor of abstention.
“Not a voice should be cast on the far-right candidate”
In a text presenting the consultation, the former candidate of La France insoumise had written that the second round “will unravel in defiance of our most fundamental revulsions. A presidency without moral authority will come out of it”. But, he adds, the two finalists “are not equivalent. Marine Le Pen adds to the project of social mistreatment that she shares with Emmanuel Macron a dangerous ferment of ethnic and religious exclusion..
“That’s why I said and I repeat that not a voice should go to the far-right candidate”writes Jean-Luc Mélenchon. “That seems to me to be sufficient public notice. (…) To go further would be to abuse the trust you have placed in me”he believes.
Mr. Mélenchon also specified: “Whatever the result, it should not be interpreted as an instruction given to anyone, neither between us nor for those who listen to us and trust us. It will indicate what are our appreciations in their diversity..