The queen of the elections is still losing its luster.
This Sunday in the second round of the presidential election, 28.2% of voters chose not to go to the polls, according to the latest estimates from Ifop.
A historically low turnout, and down about 2 points from the first round.
On April 10, 26.31% of voters had already chosen to abstain.
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YOUR COMMUNE - The results of the second round of the presidential election in your area
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This is the second time since 1969 that turnout has been lower in the second round than in the first.
In 2017, faced with the choice between Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron, 25.44% of voters had already abstained, compared to 22.23% in the first round.
The return match between the two candidates would therefore not be entirely unrelated to this new withdrawal from the polls.
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Emmanuel Macron continues his march and anchors himself in History
In 2017, Emmanuel Macron was elected with 66.10% of the votes cast in the second round, almost double the 33.90% of Marine Le Pen.
This time, the gap is tighter between the two candidates, and the president would only win over his rival with 58% of the votes cast, against 42% for the contender of the RN, according to the latest estimates of the 'Ifop.
Steady decline in participation
Since the establishment of the election of the President of the Republic by direct universal suffrage, the lowest participation rate measured in the second round nevertheless remains that of 1969. 31.1% of voters had abandoned the ballot box, neither voting nor for Alain Poher nor for Georges Pompidou.
The latter had finally won the election with 58.21% of the votes cast.
At the time, the communist candidate Jacques Duclos, who came in third position with 21.27% of the votes cast, had given to record not to choose between the two finalists, de facto favoring abstention.
However, this time, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who narrowly failed to qualify, encouraged his voters to
"not give a single vote"
to Marine Le Pen.
Arrived in fourth position, Éric Zemmour called for him to vote for the candidate of the National Rally.
Having finished respectively in fifth and sixth position, with less than 5% of the vote, Valérie Pécresse and Yannick Jadot each called quickly to vote for Emmanuel Macron, in order to prevent the nationalist right from gaining power.
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Since 1969, the voter turnout in the second round of the presidential election has suffered a regular decline at each deadline, reaching 85.9% in 1981, 84.1% in 1988 and 79.7% in 1995. After a slight increase in second round in 2002 - 79.71% turnout during the duel between Jacques Chirac and Jean-Marie Le Pen - abstention increased again in 2007 (16.03% abstention), and continued to climb in 2012 (19.65%) and in 2017 (25.44%).
The presidential election, the supreme deadline, remains however an election which mobilizes the French more than the intermediate elections.
65.31% of French people shunned the ballot box in particular during the second round of the 2021 regional elections, i.e. more than 20 additional points than during the second round of the same election in 2015. Despite a slight increase in participation in 2007,
