Abstention could well confirm its status as the leading party in France this Sunday. It could break a new record for a first round of legislative elections and reach 53.2%, according to an OpinionWay poll for Cnews and Europe 1.
After Emmanuel Macron’s first five-year term marked by record abstention in local elections, and in particular the regional Bérézina of 2021 (66.72%), the last presidential election in April had marked a rebound (26.3% of abstention in the first round), which will therefore have been short-lived.
Abstention has been growing steadily since 1993
As political scientists point out, the presidential election remains the queen election of the Fifth Republic, the only one that really counts in the eyes of voters, and the legislative elections, especially since the reversal of the calendar which has placed them since 2002 in the wake of that these, are struggling more and more to mobilize.
Since 1993 (30.8%), abstention in the first round of legislative elections has continued to grow and the movement has further increased significantly since 2007 (39.6%) and 2012 (42.7%) and especially since 2017 (51.3%).
“The very personalized stake of the presidential election still manages to arouse the interest of the French, but it sucks up all the stakes of the other types of polls, even the one – essential – which consists in electing the deputies to the National Assembly. “, as summarized by the pollster (Ipsos) Mathieu Gallard.