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Weak result for France's right-wing extremists in the regional elections

2021-06-26T04:58:01.699Z


In the last mood test before the presidential election, the conservatives win. A setback is the result for Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron. The turnout was arguably lower than ever.


Enlarge image

Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party, casts her vote in the regional elections

Photo: DENIS CHARLET / AFP

The French right wing party of Marine Le Pen performed weaker than expected in the first round of the regional elections. The Rassemblement National (RN) landed only in second place with about 19 percent of the votes, as the French TV broadcaster France 2 reported, citing initial projections. The strongest force was therefore the bourgeois-conservative camp with a good 27 percent of the vote.

According to projections, the traditional People's Party of Socialists and Partners made it to around 18 percent of the vote.

Together with civil rights, they currently represent the regional president in most regions.

The green camp got around 13 percent and was ahead of the party of French President Emmanuel Macron LREM.

Together with liberal allies, some of whom are better anchored in the country, the party came in at around 11 percent, falling behind in fifth place.

Low turnout

With an estimated 31 to 34 percent, voter turnout is likely to have reached a historic low.

The lowest voter turnout in a first round of regional elections was 46.3 percent in 2010.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin called the participation on Twitter worrying.

With the elections, among other things, the regional councils are to be filled.

France's regions have important competencies in the areas of public transport, education and economic development, but also in the social and cultural sector.

In centralized France, however, their influence is limited compared to the German federal states.

With a view to the presidential elections in April and May 2021, the results are therefore only moderately meaningful.

In the previous regional elections in December 2015, Le Pen's party emerged victorious in the first round and received 27.7 percent of the vote. In the second round, however, they failed to win one of the French regions for themselves. This time the party sees opportunities in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region for the first time in a region. RN boss Le Pen blamed the extremely low turnout for the performance and spoke of a "civic disaster".

The regional elections in France are held in two rounds in quick succession.

Only if a political force wins an absolute majority straight away does the second vote in the area not take place.

The second round is scheduled for June 27th.

Until then, parties can forge new alliances to unite more votes.

The elections were originally scheduled for March but were postponed due to the corona pandemic.

lukewarm / dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-06-26

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