The day after the second round of regional and departmental marked by a record abstention, the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, said on Monday that he was taking the situation "quite seriously".
German Chancellor Angela Merkel underlines the success of postal voting in her country.
Abstention reached about 66% on Sunday, a rate almost identical to the first round and close to the record under the Fifth Republic, observed on September 24, 2000 during the referendum on the five-year term, with 69.8%.
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“We obviously take this situation very seriously. The President of the National Assembly also announced last Tuesday initiatives "for this week," declared the head of government during a meeting of the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly by video conference. He was questioned by the German deputy Norbert Kleinwächter, of the far-right AfD party, who saw in the election results "the expression of the great despair of the French". "We are perfectly mobilized so that French democracy works at best," added Jean Castex, who also relativized the "very high rate of abstention", making the link with the Covid-19 pandemic. “We are still in this (health) crisis. This abstention rate had already been very high during the municipal elections of 2020 ”,with more than 58% in the second round, he stressed.
Ensure that "representative regimes retain their vitality"
The increase in abstention from the regional 2021 compared to those of 2015 "is roughly the same as that we saw for the municipal elections of 2020 compared to those of 2014," assured the Prime Minister.
And this, "even though the last elections which were held before the onset of the crisis, that is to say the Europeans of 2019, which were traditionally marked by a high rate of abstention, materialized in France by a decrease in abstention ”, from nearly 58% to 50%.
The President of the National Assembly, Richard Ferrand (LREM), introduced the meeting by evoking the democratic model, "a precious and fragile good, which we must undoubtedly renew so that our representative regimes keep their vitality".
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Asked in turn about the abstention in her country, lesser, Angela Merkel explained that "in Germany there are postal votes and during this pandemic, it is something that has been very important".
Some "40% to 45% of voters voted by post" and "the voter turnout was similar to the usual turnout," said the Chancellor.
It was the French socialist deputy, Cécile Untermaier, who questioned her on the levels of participation which "oblige us to act" in France as in Germany, especially among young people. Postal voting and electronic voting continue to cause reluctance in France, including within the Ministry of the Interior, which recalls that postal voting was abolished in 1975 due to fraud.
