It will therefore be a Macron-Le Pen duel.
It's been more than forty years since the French had experienced the replay of a match already decided in the previous election.
With 28.3% of the vote, Emmanuel Macron arrived at the top of the first round of the presidential election on Sunday, according to the latest estimates from Ifop.
Five years after entering the Élysée, he manages to improve his score by more than 4 points.
“I solemnly invite our fellow citizens, whatever their sensitivities and whatever their choice in the first round to join us
,” he declared in a speech delivered to his activists at the end of the evening.
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Her rival, Marine Le Pen, is in second position with 5 points behind (23.3%) the outgoing president.
It has also improved compared to 2017, by around 3 points.
At the Floral Park, she pleaded for a
“great alternation”
, inviting
“all those who did not vote”
for Emmanuel Macron to
“join”
her .
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Faced with the return of this duel, the director of the opinion department of Ifop, Jérôme Fourquet, noted on LCI
“a phenomenon of useful voting (which) benefited the two finalists”
.
He penalized Jean-Luc Mélenchon, despite the 21.2% of votes obtained.
In third position, he is up 1.6 points from his previous presidential campaign.
Still too few to qualify.
As for Éric Zemmour, who burst into the political debate last fall, he obtained a result well below his expectations, with 7.2% of the vote.
“Voting is a duty”
The oldest parties, LR like PS, have suffered severe disappointments.
Valérie Pécresse (4.8%) and Anne Hidalgo (1.7%) are the big losers of the election.
If these estimates are confirmed, their campaigns will not be eligible for reimbursement by the State.
Same sanction for the ecologist Yannick Jadot, who collected 4.8% of the ballots cast, ahead of Jean Lassalle (3.1%) and the communist Fabien Roussel (2.4%).
These results are part of a context of increasing abstention.
It is 26.7%, according to Ifop, against 22.23% in 2017.
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The main candidates did not wait to vote on Sunday morning.
Anne Hidalgo was the first to open the ball, in the 15th arrondissement of the capital, forty minutes after the opening of the offices.
Wide smile despite a "horribilis campaign", the mayor of Paris checked the inside of the envelope one last time before slipping it into the ballot box, out of
"anxiety at having made a mistake"
.
Accompanied by Brigitte Macron, the outgoing president went to his home, in Le Touquet (Pas-de-Calais), to drop off his ballot.
Emmanuel Macron greeted the onlookers, before rushing into one of the tricolor voting booths.
As usual, Marine Le Pen voted in the same department, in her stronghold of Hénin-Beaumont, under the flashes of photographers.
Surrounded by a swarm of cameras, Éric Zemmour spoke in the 8th arrondissement of Paris.
“We can no longer vote.
Back off, please!”
, annoyed the assessor before claiming his electoral card from the candidate of Reconquest!.
“Zemmour, Éric, Justin, Léon… voted!”
Before lunch, Jean-Luc Mélenchon slipped his bulletin to Marseille, where he settled in 2017.
I believe, like Jacques Chirac, that everything in the soul of France says no to extremism
Valerie Pécresse
Former head of state Nicolas Sarkozy, who did not make his choice public during the campaign, voted shortly after in the 16th arrondissement without speaking.
It was sometimes necessary to wait nearly ten minutes to vote in urban offices.
Jérôme, 45, came with his wife and children to the 12th arrondissement: while regretting a
“lack of debate”
and candidates
“not up to standard”
, he was not demotivated for the first round:
“Voting is a to have to."
While many polls were published during the campaign, Michel, 74, wanted to vote
“strategically”
.
“I wanted to prevent another candidate from winning”
, he told us.
Others, like this cross-voter in the capital, admitted
"never to have been so undecided"
.
In downtown Marseille, Laurence, 53, had to try three times to vote, facing a one-hour queue.
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In the HQ of the candidates, excitement was in order.
The day before, the overseas departments began to vote, as well as the French living abroad.
The receipt of these first results - under embargo on Sunday at midday - opened the way to all the interpretations of the staffs.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon's impressive breakthrough in Guyana, Martinique and Guadeloupe (leading with 50.6%, 53% and 56.1% of the vote respectively) has alerted his rivals.
“He managed to capture the antivax vote thoroughly
,” noted an executive adviser.
Porte de Versailles, where Macronist activists gathered on Sunday evening, there was a difficult campaign:
“It was very hard to mobilize people to go and vote”
, confides a fifty-year-old engaged LREM in her commune of Essonne.
One of his friends shared his surprise at the
“hate”
of the opposition vis-à-vis the President of the Republic.
“We had to stick the posters back on the official panels, because they had all been tagged or torn, except those of Éric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen”
.
On the television sets, the main representatives of the candidates were immediately questioned about their future positioning for the second round, which will be held on April 24.
The main political parties are to meet their leadership teams on Monday to analyze the ballot.
“I believe, like Jacques Chirac, that everything in the soul of France says no to extremism”,
launched Valérie Pécresse in a speech.
Adding:
“I will vote in conscience Emmanuel Macron to prevent the coming to power of Marine Le Pen and the chaos that would result from it.”
The outgoing head of state wants to "reach out to all those who want to work for France"
Anne Hidalgo also called for
“vote seriously against the far right of Marine Le Pen by using the Emmanuel Macron ballot”.
Like Yannick Jadot, who asked to
"block the far right".
All eyes are now on Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Which repeated with verve to his troops:
"We must not give a single voice to Mrs. Le Pen."
Without deciding between abstention and vote in favor of the current tenant of the Elysée.
Éric Zemmour clearly asked his voters to
"vote for Marine Le Pen",
because,
"facing"
her,
“there is a man who brought in 2 million immigrants, did not say a word about identity, immigration during his campaign and will do worse if he is re-elected”
.
As for the deputy LR Éric Ciotti, he affirmed on TF1 that he did not
“vote (did) not Emmanuel Macron”
.
A new two-week campaign is now beginning, the outcome of which seems uncertain.
An Ifop poll carried out on Sunday for LCI places the two finalists in a pocket handkerchief, to the advantage of Emmanuel Macron (51%).
“I am ready to invent something new to bring together diverse convictions and sensitivities in order to build with them a common action in the service of our nation for the years to come.
It is our duty”,
affirmed the outgoing Head of State, who wants to
“reach out to all those who want to work for France”
.
His voice reserves appear limited and the votes of Jean-Luc Mélenchon will be fiercely contested.
The debate between the two rounds, which allowed the Walker to take the lead in 2017, will be held on April 20 and promises to be more decisive than ever.