The official result of the presidential election was given at 8 p.m.: the French men and women chose Emmanuel Macron (LREM) against Marine Le Pen (RN) on April 24, 2022. Numerama follows the evolution of the evening of the second round.
8:15 p.m. — The polls were not far wrong
The polls of the last voting intentions were not very far from the final result, noted Guillaume Rozier on Twitter. While Emmanuel Macron was given 56.3% of the vote, he finally has 1.7 points more.
8 p.m. — Emmanuel Macron is re-elected President of the Republic
Emmanuel Macron is again elected President of the Republic, for 5 years. The percentage is well below five years ago: he obtained 58.2%, and Marine Le Pen obtained 41.8% of the votes cast. The vote for the extreme right has never been so high in France: this corresponds to 12 million votes.
7:30 p.m. — Beware of Belgian press estimates
The Belgian press has been revealing its own estimates of election results for years, because it is not subject to the same rules of confidentiality as us. It is for this reason that at 5:30 p.m. in the first round, La Libre had, for example, given initial estimates.
However, we must be wary of it: the Belgian newspaper announced Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron at 24% both, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon at 19%. Finally, the outgoing president came much more in the lead, while the candidate of France Insoumise followed Marine Le Pen much closer, with barely 1.2 points difference.
If the Belgian results have historically never been wrong about the identity of the winner, they depend on a different method from that used by the polling institutes at 8 p.m. The most prudent thing is to be patient, waiting for the real results.
6:39 p.m. — No, you cannot elect Zidane
If half of France votes Zinédine Zidane, can he become president? No. But some have obviously tried, as shown by a surfer in the voting booth.
The polling stations only count the candidates officially registered for election to the Constitutional Council, no undeclared citizen (even Zidane, yes) can be elected, even if he receives the majority of the votes cast.
(and it’s the same logic for Orelsan, by the way)
6:06 p.m. — The carbon footprint of Jean Castex mocked
This time, Jean Castex did not borrow the Falcon of the Republic to go and vote. But that did not prevent clever Internet users from making fun of his little ecological choices in terms of travel on French territory.
The Prime Minister had come under a lot of criticism after traveling by private jet on April 10 to vote in the Pyrénées-Orientales, in his town of Prades, simply to be able to be photographed casting his ballot in the ‘urn. Some have estimated that by using this jet, Jean Castex would have polluted more than a Frenchman in 6 months. So more than 35,000 people signed a petition so that he would not make the same mistake in the second round, and favor the power of attorney, which is an effective and safe system for giving his voting power to another person, present on square.
For the second round, Jean Castex arranged to take an airliner, more consistent with different end-of-campaign trips. On the other hand, he still did not yield to the power of attorney.
5:55 p.m. — Abstention on the rise
Abstention is higher than in 2017: the Ministry of the Interior announced 63.23% participation at 5 p.m. According to Ipsos Sopra-Steria, quoted by France24, abstention could reach 28% on April 24, 2022, or 2.5 points more than five years ago.
One of these abstainers stood out online: Jean Lassalle, candidate eliminated in the first round with 3.1% of the vote, staged himself in his polling station, refusing to put his ballot in the urn. This is, by the way, a media stunt in violation of the electoral code. Article R48 indicates that “ all discussions and all deliberations of voters are prohibited inside the polling stations. »
5:03 p.m. — What is the left doing?
Emmanuel Macron or Marine Le Pen: for some French people, voting is difficult. While the right and the far right are well represented in the second round, left-wing voters are forced to choose between two programs that do not suit them. The crucial subject of ecology, for example, was released in the first round at the same time as Yannick Jadot (4.6%) and Jean-Luc Mélenchon (21.95%). Within the political left, almost all executives and personalities have called for blocking the far right, either by not ” not giving a voice to Marine Le Pen or by voting for the outgoing president.
This article is updated in real time as election night progresses.