At noon, 25.4% of those registered had voted compared to 28.5% five years ago
Turnout in the first round of today’s French presidential elections is lower than in the last two appointments with the polls in the neighboring country. At noon, 25.48% of the census had voted, according to data provided by the Ministry of the Interior. This percentage represents three points less than that found in 2017 (28.54%) and that in 2012 (28.3%) at this stage of the vote.
The French president and candidate for re-election, Emmanuel Macron, has exercised his right to vote in the coastal town of Le Touquet, in the Nord-Pas de Calais department, north of Paris. The French president went to the polling station around 12:30 p.m. accompanied by his wife, Brigitte, who on this occasion voted after Macron. In 2017, Brigitte Macron was the first to vote.
After verifying the identity and after depositing their vote, the couple has left the crowded voting center without incident. Macron has been the last of the main candidates to cast his ballot. The far-right candidates Eric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen have deposited their ballots at polling stations in Paris and Pas de Calais, respectively; The Republican candidate, Valérie Pécresse, has done the same in Vélizy-Villacoublay, in northern France, and the presidential candidate of La Francia Insumisa, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, has cast her ballot in Marseille.
The polls place the current president as the favorite, but the French electoral system does not allow anything to be taken for granted. Except for surprises, Macron will prevail in the first round, since he has a consolidated vote intention even above 25 percent, but it remains to be seen who will accompany him on the ballot two weeks later, on April 24. Le Pen, who already achieved the long-awaited face-to-face with Macron in the 2017 elections, is ‘a priori’ the best positioned candidate.