Zoe, 23 years old

Almost everyone around me voted for Mélenchon.

Me too, because I thought he was the only left-wing candidate with a chance of winning the runoff.

I think that we are in such a great political and climatic emergency that we have to change something.

And I think that Mélenchon had a real, concrete program, not just empty words like Macron's.

So it was a choice of conviction.

My goal was to see a left-wing party instead of Le Pen in the run-off to avoid the very debate we are having now: it's about racist issues, Islamophobic statements - that's a disaster.

I don't like the political climate in France at all.

So it wasn't just a choice out of conviction, but also a choice out of necessity.

A cry for help.

Even though I knew it would probably come down to Macron and Le Pen, I still had a small hope that Mélenchon would make it.

As the elections approached, I got the impression that he was mobilizing the people.

The result really pisses me off.

For young people aged between 18 and 34, Mélenchon came first.

And we are the ones who have suffered the most during the pandemic.

We sacrificed our youth so that the elderly would vote for Macron and Le Pen.

This is how we are thanked.

But the fight is not over yet.

If there were a union of left-wing parties, it would be possible after the general elections in June that the left will be represented in the legislature.

For the runoff, I think I'll cast a blank ballot.

Because what should I do if I want to exercise my right to vote without voting for Le Pen or Macron?

Then I take a piece of white paper, cross out the name or write something else on it and throw it in.

This is a strong political message.

But it is not counted.

Nobody sees how high the proportion of “zero votes” (“votes blancs”) is.

Of course it's great that I can vote.

But I did it once in 2017, I voted for Macron.

Now I don't want my vote to help get him re-elected.

And at the same time, I don't want Le Pen to get through.

Because I'm even more afraid of her.

But Macron has similarly extreme views on some issues.

And I think that during his tenure he overdid it too many times.

So it's an internal conflict.

So throwing in a blank note on April 24th is my first reflex.

But I'm not quite sure yet.

Marion, 20 years

In my voting office, Jean-Luc Mélenchon was consistently ahead, followed by Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen. So the winning trio, just in a different order.

I'm not sure if I would have liked it better if the far-right instead of the far-right had come into the runoff with Macron.

I don't want to say who I chose.

But none of the three inspire me.

What particularly bothers me about Mélenchon is that he is so anti-European.

It makes no sense if France isolates itself, we are part of Europe.

I feel like I'm French, but also like a European.

Some of my family lives in Spain and although I don't have dual nationality, I do experience dual culture.

And be it Erasmus or Interrail, there is so much that we benefit from as part of Europe.