Emmanuel Macron "expressed concern over the low turnout in municipal elections", which is "not very good news," said the Elysee, while abstention rose to around 60% in second round Sunday.
>> LIVE - Municipal: the latest information on the second round
Between 40% and 41% participation
Three months after a first round already upset by the coronavirus crisis, this second round was again marked by a participation rate at half mast, between 40% and 41% according to estimates, against 62.1% in 2014. Despite precautions exceptional sanitary facilities (wearing a mandatory mask in polling stations, hydroalcoholic gel) and the ebb of the epidemic, a large majority of the 16.5 million voters called to vote in 4,820 communes shunned the voting booths.
Already on March 15, less than one voter in two - 44.3%, compared to 63.5% in 2014 - had come to vote in the first round. What raise the "concern" of Emmanuel Macron, for whom this abstention is "not very good news", according to the Elysee. The head of state, however, called his Prime Minister to congratulate him on his "great victory" in Le Havre, where Édouard Philippe, in charge since 2010, obtained nearly 59% of the votes. The two heads of the executive will see each other "a little time alone" on Monday.