During the postal vote organized for inmates of French prisons, Emmanuel Macron won the day. The outgoing president won 65.3% of the votes cast, against 34.7% for Marine Le Pen. As if “France from below” had voted for the representative par excellence of “France from above” and the “start-up nation”.
Since the 2019 European elections, detainees can vote not only by proxy or with temporary absence, but also by post. A third way opened at the instigation of Emmanuel Macron. He wanted to facilitate access to the vote for people convicted or in pre-trial detention, seeing it as an element of their dignity. For this presidential election, 13,672 detainees out of the approximately 70,000 people who are currently in prison have taken the necessary steps.
In each round, the detainees voted in their respective prison establishments, then the ballots were sent to the Ministry of Justice, Place Vendôme, where they were counted. Finally, they were integrated in a somewhat fictitious way in the results of the 1is district of Paris.
Le Pen had promised more “firmness”
In the first round, Jean-Luc Mélenchon clearly came out on top, with 45.78% of the vote, far ahead of Marine Le Pen (20.28%) and Emmanuel Macron (18.63%). In the second round, the absence of the representative of La France insoumise (LFI) changed the situation. Among the detainees who had bothered to register to vote by mail, one in four abstained. And the share of blank or invalid ballots rose to 8.63% of voters. The 9,365 prisoners who spoke put Emmanuel Macron in the lead. No doubt a way, for the supporters of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, to respect his instructions “Not a voice for Le Pen”.
The score of the far-right candidate, much lower than in the general population and even more than in popular circles, is probably also due to her electoral program in criminal matters. Return of minimum sentences, abolition of most sentence reductions and adjustments, real life imprisonment… During the campaign, Marine Le Pen had clearly promised more “firmness” facing a “laxity” assumed by the authorities. Only two types of penalties “can be understood by delinquents and criminals: fines and imprisonment”, she wrote in her program. The first concerned knew how to remember it.