Many had not voted in the first round, but came to vote in the second round of the presidential election. French expatriates in North America slipped their ballots into the ballot boxes on Saturday for the French presidential election, one day ahead of France.
More than 130,000 French people are registered on the electoral lists in the United States, and just over 100,000 in Canada.
A campaign difficult “to follow” because of the remoteness
In the first round, in the constituency of Washington – which encompasses five US states as well as the nation’s capital – voter turnout was only around 30%. Two weeks ago, Christine Polillo, 65, had not made the trip, like many of the people interviewed by AFP outside the French embassy on this sunny Saturday morning.
The fault, says this teacher who has lived for 35 years in Baltimore, with the multitude of candidates whom she did not then know “not really”, in a campaign difficult “to follow” because of the remoteness. But she considers that voting in the second round is “very important, a way of feeling attached to France”.
“Even if we are absent, we feel concerned”, assures Rachida Boukezia, 42, who came with one of her two daughters, in a stroller. “I am counting on them to return to France, so I would like their future to be in good hands”, explains this economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), who has lived in the United States for eight years.
The French went to vote very early in Montreal
In Montreal, a long line organized by dozens of volunteers snaked around the convention center in the early morning. Many had a coffee in one hand, a book or their phone in the other, to wait.
Claire Barsaq, 33, has lived in Montreal for 12 years. She also didn’t come in the first round because of her job as a nurse. “But there I did not want to miss the second round. The choice is too important,” she said. “I live far away and I am agoraphobic, so I did not come in the first round, but this time, we have no choice”, abounds Jean-Francois Perichon, a 75-year-old retiree who has lived in Quebec for 40 years. .