Presidential election – France: A sluggish campaign that didn’t inspire much – News


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That’s it then: From midnight on Friday, the election campaign for the first round of the presidential election in France will officially be over. Statutory silence prevails until Sunday evening at 8 p.m.: Now the voters should make their decision without being influenced further.

The majority of voters still seem undecided about who to vote for. The candidate who is closest to you politically. Or those who are most likely to get into the April 24 run-off election. Because the first ballot is just the pre-selection.

Lackluster election campaign

The helplessness of the voters reflects the election campaign. So far, there has hardly been any public debate about the future of France.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine at the latest, President Macron has mainly been on diplomatic missions because France is currently presiding over the EU. That left little time for the presidential candidate to campaign. Emmanuel Macron announced his candidacy for a second term in an open letter to the French people. He refused debates with the eleven other applicants and held only one major campaign event.

Macron wants to continue his current policy. This electrifies voters less than his promises to change everything five years ago. Political competition from left and right now promises change. She knows that the French are fundamentally dissatisfied with their governments.

Le Pen benefits from right-wing extremist competition

Opinion polls are an integral part of French election campaigns. They reflect the political mood of the population on a weekly basis. And this is apparently leaning towards the right wing.

The journalist Éric Zemmour was a political high-flyer in the fall. Known primarily as a polemical commentator on private television and as a book author, Zemmour seemed to storm into the Elysée even before the official start of his campaign. Some polls already saw him in the second ballot.

Marine Le Pen, on the other hand, has toned down her rhetoric and looks almost dowdy and well-behaved compared to the right-wing extremist provocateur Zemmour. You use this politically. Zemmour has accelerated the “de-diabolization” of the Rassemblement Nationale, with which Le Pen wants to rid her party of the far-right stable smell. Today, many voters consider Marine Le Pen to be a national-conservative politician, even though she has hardly changed the content of her program.

During the election campaign, Marine Le Pen primarily took up the fact that purchasing power is rapidly declining due to high inflation. This is the issue that worries voters the most right now.

Duel Macron – Le Pen with an open outcome

The election campaign is officially over. The political debate has hardly inspired voters. As a result, abstention could climb towards 30 percent, a new record for a French presidential election.

This causes fear among all parties, because a low turnout makes the result difficult to calculate. Opinion polls assume that incumbent Macron will win the first round and then face Marine Le Pen in the runoff. With a low turnout, things could turn out differently.

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