Most of the eliminated candidates ask for the vote for the current president on April 24
The polls traced the polls in the first round of the presidential elections. Without surprise, and fulfilling the script they had drawn, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen will face each other in the second round to be held on April 24. With 97% of the vote counted, the current head of state and candidate for re-election obtained 27.85% of the votes in the first round held this Sunday, compared to 23.15% of those garnered by the far-right Marine Le Pen.
Both, with opposing visions of the country and of Europe, are only four points away, a tighter difference than that of 2017, although Macron has a certain advantage in the fact that most of the eliminated candidates have emphatically asked their voters support for him on April 24 with the aim of curbing the far-right.
“I invite citizens, whatever their sensitivity, to join the project that I represent to make a barrier against the extreme right”, Macron cried out in his speech before the militants, at the Porte de Versailles, after thanking the candidates who had shown their support for him in the second round, especially Jean Luc Mélenchon.
The candidate of France Insumisa, the only hope of the left in these elections, has created the surprise, since he has been in third place but as the scrutiny progressed he advanced ground and kept 21.95% of the votes, according to the latest data, just one point behind Le Pen.
Fourth place went to the far-right Éric Zemmour (7.07%), who overtook the conservative candidate Valérie Pécresse, in fifth place, with 4.78% of the support. The Socialist Party candidate Anne Hidalgo has suffered a historic blow, with just 1.75% and in tenth position, almost at the bottom.
“PROJECT FOR EUROPE”
“I will make every effort to convince that the only project for France and Europe is us,” Macron said at his headquarters, before hundreds of supporters. “On April 24 we can make the election of hope, of France and of Europe,” he said before shouts of “president.”
«The next day 24 two visions of society are played, that of division and disorder or that of the union of the French in social justice and protection. All those who have not voted for Macron are invited to join this unification,” Le Pen asked for his part after learning the first results.
A France sleepy by a strange campaign and exhausted by crises voted in this first electoral round marked by strong tension, since the high expected abstention rate (it was 26%), indecision on the part of the electorate and boredom on the part of it after five years of macronismo made it difficult to make more or less solid forecasts.
“I want to create a protective state that guarantees everyone’s freedom. My ambition is to unite the French, to turn France into a power of peace, a country that regains greatness », Le Pen affirmed before his militants.
VOTE SCHEDULE
The real electoral struggle, the one that had been blurred in recent weeks, will begin this Monday, when the two finalists will have to fight for each of the supports. The advantage in theory is for the current president, since the eliminated candidates asked for support for him and only Éric Zemmour opted for Marine Le Pen, as well as Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, from the hard right.
“You must not give a single vote to Marine Le Pen”, said the leftist Jean Luc Mélenchon in his intervention before his voters. He said it three times, although without mentioning that the president. “I ask you all to vote against the extreme right of Marine Le Pen, with Emmanuel Macron’s ballot,” Anne Hidalgo requested.
Pécresse also called on his constituents to unite against the extreme right. “I do not own the votes that bear my name, but I ask those who have given me their trust to think in the coming days about the seriousness of the consequences for our country and future generations of any election ahead of the second round” , said.
On April 24, the scenario of 2017 will be repeated, but neither the president is the same, nor is Le Pen. He accumulates five years of crisis in his mandate. He is more worn out and part of the electorate is tired and would do everything possible to remove him from power. She, on the other hand, has managed to soften his image, in part thanks to candidates like Zemmour, who is much more radical.
The first polls are already circulating for the second round, which give him a tighter victory than in 2017 but they give him a winner.
The result of this first electoral round has also confirmed a paradigm shift in French politics, which has always been dominated by the traditional parties. The poor results of Anne Hidalgo (Socialist Party), as well as Valérie Pécresse (Republicans) leaves the future of both parties up in the air.
