Who will be the two qualified candidates in the second round of the 2022 presidential election? With what rate of abstention? Will defeated candidates give voting instructions? Find in this direct the best of the contents published by International mail during the campaign, and discover the analyzes of the foreign press as soon as the results are published at 8 p.m.
Attendance down at 5 p.m.
The turnout at 5 p.m. stood at 65% in mainland France, down 4.4 points compared to 2017, indicates the Ministry of the Interior. Turnout reached 25.48% at noon, down three points from 2017. Announced at record levels, abstention in the presidential election questions the foreign press. If the disaffection for politics is the same in other Western countries, there are some particularities specific to France in 2022. A press review at (re)read here.
The French (motivated) of Montreal
Thousands of French people traveled to Montreal on Saturday, due to time difference, to vote for the first round of the presidential election, reports The duty. “Elderly people, students and parents with small children congested the orange metro line […] to converge at the Palais des Congrès”, where the Consulate General of France had set up 39 polling stations for the 67,132 people registered on the Montreal consular electoral list. The Consul General, Sophie Lagoutte, was delighted to“a very good sign for democratic vitality”. In the long queue, a voter complained about a lack of“staff” to coordinate the exercise. “Waiting time for voters, initially estimated at 1 hour by the consulate around 10 a.m., has since climbed to 1:45 a.m., then 2:30 a.m. around noon. 2:30 around noon”notes the newspaper.
Seen from Belgium – The vote of French people living abroad can be decisive
The French who live (and vote) outside France are numerous enough to tip an election, recalls the Belgian daily Breaking News-Sports. This year, voters who will vote from abroad will be slightly fewer than in 2017, in particular because of the health crisis: nearly 1.5 million in total. An article to read here.
Large queues at The Hague in the Netherlands, in front of the Lycée français Vincent-Van-Gogh, according to the correspondent of International mail in the country. Taking into account dual nationals, the number of French people living in the Netherlands can be estimated at 50,000 people, according to the Consulate General of France in Amsterdam.
In our archives • The state of France – Where is the French health system?
According to some surveys, health is one of the main sources of concern for more than two out of three French people, International mail compared health data in France to that of several of its European neighbours: Germany, Denmark, Italy and Poland.
In our archives • Report – In Brittany, a France that feels abandoned
The correspondent of the Quebec daily The duty traveled to France “yellow vests”, in Morbihan in particular, to tell the discomfort of its inhabitants, who still feel misunderstood by the capital. An item to (re)read here.
In our archives • Video – How are you, the French?
During the campaign, International mail interviewed foreign journalists based in France. Briton John Lichfield, who lives in a small Norman village, had testified to the feeling of abandonment that runs through rural France. “Agriculture and big industries are gone. People have to go to work in the big cities, like in Caen. They feel like they’ve lost something important.”
In our archives • Seen from Italy – Ecology, absent from the countryside
Everyone talks about it except the candidates. The Italian site Linkiesta wondered in February about the gap observed between the concerns of the French, among which ecology figures prominently, and the absence of environmental subjects from the presidential campaign. An article to (re)read here.