POLLS OPEN IN FIRST ROUND OF FRANCE’S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION AS MACRON SEEKS NEW TERM

Sun 10 April 2022:

The first round of a presidential election in France began at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Sunday (April 10). It will end at 1800 GMT, when the first exit poll results will be released.

There are a total of twelve presidential candidates. Two far-right candidates, a communist, a hard-left veteran, and candidates from the embattled mainstream centre-right and centre-left parties are among the candidates.

Political observers have cautioned that the election, which has been overshadowed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, may produce unpredictable results, with turnout being a key element.

Marine Le Pen

Marine Le Pen, a far-right candidate, has emerged as an unexpected danger to President Emmanuel Macron’s re-election prospects.

The polls suggest a close-fought contest, with Macron’s projected lead in the runoff within the margin of error.

Running in a presidential election for her third time, Le Pen seems to have learned from the mistakes of her past candidacies and has embraced a makeover that has seen her tone down her hardline rhetoric on immigration.

“What Marine Le Pen is doing is smoothing over her political image, where she presents herself as very practical and does not highlight her most extreme ideas,” said Gilles Ivaldi, a researcher at CEVIPOF (Centre for Political Research at Sciences Po).

Ivaldi describes Le Pen’s approach as the “normalisation of the far right”.

Eric Zemmour

The emergence of another far-right candidate on France’s political scene – Eric Zemmour, with his provocative and disruptive campaign – has boosted Le Pen’s new standing as a “practical” politician.

Convicted of hate speech and known for his vitriol against immigrants and Islam, Zemmour leads a party – Reconquete or “Reconquest” – that is named after the historic period known as “Reconquista” when Christian forces drove Muslim rulers out from the Iberian peninsula.

Zemmour has succeeded in not only winning some of Le Pen’s voter base over to his own party; he has also taken supporters from the mainstream centre-right that had traditionally been with the party Les Republicains.

“Thanks to Zemmour, [Le Pen] appears to be much more moderate,” Ivaldi said.

“People now equate far right with just Zemmour, which is a big mistake as Le Pen is without a doubt still from the far right,” he said.

For Jean-Yves Camus, a journalist and political analyst, the merging of the right wing into the far right is one of the biggest developments of the election.

Pro-European Union, centrist Macron’s focus on an unpopular plan to increase the retirement age along with a steep rise in inflation have dented the president’s ratings.

Meanwhile, anti-immigration, eurosceptic far-right Le Pen has been boosted by a months-long focus on the cost of living issues.

The big drop in support for her rival on the far-right, Eric Zemmour also helped in accelerating her approval ratings.

French political scientist Pascal Perrineau said “There is an uncertainty,” referring to the unprecedentedly high numbers of voters who were still undecided or who changed their minds.

‘A Vote,’ an advocacy group, went door to door to inform and encourage young people to vote.

Last month, pollster Ipsos predicted that a record number of people would abstain from voting in this month’s election. Analysts believe that if it is confirmed, it will increase the chances of a surprise.

Turnout rates in French elections have been declining since the 1980s. According to figures from the Interior Ministry, more than a fifth of French voters skipped at least one round of voting in 2017.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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