This is a record figure: 66.6% of voters shunned the ballot box this Sunday, during the first round of regional and departmental elections.
This is 16 points more than in 2015 and such a score had never been reached in an election under the Fifth Republic, apart from the referendum of September 20, 2000 on the five-year term (69.81% abstention).
According to David Doukhan, editor-in-chief at the political service of Le Parisien, this massive abstention is explained by both contextual and structural causes, "deeper".
“This election ended up in a diabolical calendar.
These elections found themselves stuck 10 months before the presidential election and at the very beginning of the summer, while the French are beginning to regain a taste for life ”, in particular with the arrival of good weather, the lifting of restrictive measures for fight against the coronavirus… And the start of the Euro competition.
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Structural causes also explain this record of abstention according to the political journalist. “Intermediate elections suffer from the institutional calendar, with a presidential election that crushes everything. In local elections, lesser known personalities come forward, more complex and precise skills, and more complicated voting systems. Finally, we must also look at the campaign of the first round of regional to understand the abstention rate, assures David Doukhan. A first round centered around questions of "very political politics", estimates the journalist.
