The time for a Socialists versus Republicans duel in the second round of the presidential election seems a long way off. With 1.74% of the vote for Anne Hidalgo (PS) and 4.7% for Valérie Pécresse (LR), the historic parties of the Fifth Republic are at their lowest.
If the descent of the Socialist Party had already been recorded in 2017, when outgoing President François Hollande announced that he would not stand again, and that his successor, Benoît Hamon, had received 6.3% of the votes, this election marks the Socialist Party’s worst score in a presidential election.
With 1.74% of the vote, Anne Hidalgo is placed in 10th position (out of 12), behind the ecologist Yannick Jadot (4.58%), the communist Fabien Roussel (2.3%), but also right-wing candidates Jean Lassalle (3.16%) and Nicolas Dupont-Aignan ( 2.07%).
Valérie Pécresse’s candidacy for Les Républicains did not allow the party to survive the candidacies of Emmanuel Macron, Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour. While François Fillon had obtained 20% of the vote in 2017, Les Républicains plunged to 4.7%, a historically low score. Before that, its lowest rate in the first round of a presidential election dated back to 1981, with 18% for Jacques Chirac. A real collapse for the two traditional parties of the Fifth Republic.
A few minutes after the announcement of the results, the mayor of Paris called for blocking the far right and voting for Emmanuel Macron. Valérie Pécresse also said that she would vote for the outgoing president in the second round. Even within the Republicans, however, not everyone agrees on this second round vote. Eric Ciotti, support of Valérie Pécresse, notably affirmed that he would not vote for Emmanuel Macron.