Abstention is once again on the rise, with 28.01% of registered voters, in the second round of the presidential election on Sunday.
Never had abstention been so strong in the second round of a presidential election, with the exception of the 1969 record. With 28.01% of people registered on the electoral lists, it rose again during this election, and illustrated voter fatigue with the political offer. Abstention was the first choice of registrants in the first round, with 25.1%. She won almost a million votes. The repeated encore of the Le Pen-Macron duel did not help; abstention was 25.4% in the second round of 2017.
The increase, however, should be put into perspective. The second round of 2017 also set a record: more than 3 million blank votes and one million invalid ballots. These votes represent this year “only” three million voters, and ultimately give a participation substantially similar to the previous ballot. There is nothing to rejoice about however: rejection as a political force totals 34.2%. More than a third of registrants.
To read, Emmanuel Macron: “I am no longer the candidate of one camp but the president of all”
The “republican front” is not dead
As for the first round, young and precarious are the first to have shunned the election. They had not been concerned by this funny campaign, blurred by the end of the health crisis and the start of the war in Ukraine, played in the absence of the favorite, the president-candidate Macron, and especially without these debates essential to the voters (successful ratings, in 2017). The second round, finally with a direct opposition between candidates and the re-emergence of themes such as ecology and purchasing power, did not change the situation.
Note that this “republican front” which was said to be dead seems to have held. The Cassandres already saw the Insoumis refuse to slip in a Macron ballot in the second round, and predicted an abstention beating the 1969 record. the far right but without illusions about the liberal program of the head of state, nevertheless blocked Marine Le Pen, as in 2017.
To read, Marine Le Pen: “I will continue my commitment to France and the French people”